Power Rangers: First Night
by Lightwing23
Summary: (Formerly titled "Power Rangers Origins") A re-imagining of the original Power Rangers universe set in today's rougher, darker world. A new cast of Rangers fights familiar foes from the MMPR in this story rated M for violence and language.
1. Prologue

Prologue

A shaft of gold gleamed off the light cast by the driller. Slowly, the drill powered down, and the machine tilted so that its camera fixed squarely on the object before it. Millions of miles away, within the confines of one of Earth's biggest space exploration control centers, a technician squinted hard at the monitor. Something about the metal under that ice looked… unnatural, far too polished and smooth to be there by mere chance. What had the probe found? Had they really just discovered evidence of life on Mars?

On any other day, the technician would have called his supervisor over immediately, but this was no ordinary day. This find could revolutionize the world. Life on Mars would have millions of implications. He would be lauded as a champion of science; he would go down in the history books as the man who incontestably discovered extraterrestrial life.

The technician looked up over his computer monitor. His boss had a coat over his arm and a few coworkers trailing behind him. Lunchtime. Perfect.

Pleased with his luck, the technician initiated the drill and very carefully began to break the ice around the metal. How would he tell everyone the news? Should he show this to the rest of the station first? No, straight to the news with this one. Too big to let someone else in the station steal the glory.

The technician swore. The drill had broken through the ice and bit into the metal. The ice was thinner than he had thought. Five keystrokes pulled the drill away, but the damage had been done. Even through the broken ice, he could see a clean chunk missing from the metal.

But, even as he swore again and again and again, fresh pieces of ice slipped away. Water began to drip out of the drilled hole, but the technician was too busy cursing himself to notice. It wasn't until the driller's microphone picked up the noise of one massive break that the technician turned back to the monitor and watched, his jaw dropped, his mind unable to even process what was happening, as the metal within the ice began to move. Something further down the shaft – the technician was sure he had lost his mind, for it looked like a hand – tightened against the metal and began to twist. The technician slammed down the button to move the drill backwards, but nothing happened. Ice fell away from the thing further down the shaft, but even as it did the driller's camera began to short out. The microphone, however, continued to pick up every break of ice as the pieces fell, but there was something else, something wholly other, beneath the sound of cracking ice.

Something growled. Then something screamed, its wail blending in with a new sound of metal on metal, until the technician lost all signal with his driller.


	2. Episode 1 Ch 1 Will

Chapter 1: Will

"_Yadol_!"

"YADOL!"

"_Ahop_!"

"AHOP!"

"_Yool_!"

"YOOL!"

The class echoed their master with one last punch, then they straightened up and bowed, just as he did. Dozens of onlookers cheered as the students relaxed and beamed at their parents watching them.

"Great job everyone!" said the master. "Really great job. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and learned a little bit about what it means to be a martial artist: honor, strength of character, purity of heart. Never go looking for a fight. Only use your skills in self-defense. And above all, respect others."

"Thank you, Will Weston!" cheered the MC. Will bowed to his class again before leaving the performance space. "And remember, kids: if anyone's interested in taking more of Will's classes at the Youth Center, be sure to pick up a brochure at the Holiday Help Desk near the parking lot! And please stick around for our Annual Cedar Grove Cliff-Diving Competition starting in just ten minutes!"

Will pulled a towel from his duffle and dried himself off. Even for early July, and even though a light breeze wafted off the lake, it was hot up on the cliffs. Will was happy to have offered to give an introductory lesson in martial arts for all the kids out for the Fireworks Festival, but now most of the afternoon was gone, and he had hardly seen any of his friends. He pulled a watch from his bag. Three hours to fireworks. Most of the crowd would probably stay here, at the top of the lower cliffs where some tree cover might keep them cool until the sun went down and the fireworks show began over the lake.

"Not too bad out there," said a voice. Will's friend Jack clapped him on the shoulder. "I recall learning those moves from you last year."

"You've come a long way," said Will, and he meant it. Jack had always been known more for his gadgetry than his physical prowess, though he was the top shot on the university's archery club. The club called him Hawkeye; the frat houses called him Four-Eyes. Will always admired Jack's level-headedness when it came to bullying. All the same, nothing wrong with teaching the guy how to defend himself. Just in case.

"You're a good teacher," said Jack. "It takes a rare individual to be able to teach both me and Ewan at the same time."

That was the truth. Where Jack was solid as a rock, Ewan reminded Will of a bat caught in a hurricane. Ewan hadn't bothered with his ADHD medicine since high school. He said it turned him into a zombie.

Will and Jack looked across the narrow gap to the higher cliffs, where a dozen shirtless men were stretching. Ewan wasn't hard to spot – he was the tannest of all of them, and he wore a red-white-and-blue Speedo that left little to the imagination, just as Will knew Ewan preferred it.

Some old TV theme song began to play in Jack's pocket. In a flash his phone was in his hand. "Jess," he said, "where are you?" he asked. "You missed Will's… Your language is as colorful as ever, sis."

Jack's twin sister. Red-dyed hair, lots of leather, even more attitude, and a mouth that would make a sailor blush. Jack's limitless patience was probably the only reason she was still alive. Any lesser brother would have strangled her to death years ago.

Jack dropped his phone back into his pocket. "Jess said she watched your class from under the trees. She also said that she's going to go read in the car until it gets dark."

Jess was convinced that she was allergic to the sun. She usually just slept during the day, but Jack and Jess still lived with their parents, and their parents had all but physically thrown Jess into Jack's car so that she'd go to the lake for the day. Apparently, they'd called her a "lesbian vampire". Jack said that he had taken it harder than she had, but Will had to wonder how Jess could stand living with parents who were so disrespectful.

"Ewan won't mind her being gone," said Will. "I'm sure he's more interested in girls watching who are in to boys."

"Very true."

The MC climbed back up the small flight of stairs that led into the little gazebo overlooking the lake. Will was distracted, though, by a girl joining the men about to dive. Even from where he stood, Will could tell that she was stunning. The divers had noticed this as well. All of them stood up straighter and puffed out their chests. Ewan pulled his Speedo down just a little bit. The girl, however, ignored them all. Will almost laughed; she was holding a book. Ever as he watched, she noticed it still in her hand, disappeared from view, and then reappeared without it, her hand now clutched to her upper arm, as if unsure what to do with itself when not holding pages open.

"Who is that?" Jack asked.

Will shook his head. "No idea."

"I wonder what she was reading."

Will just wondered if the girl knew what she was getting herself into. Part of the diving contest involved scaling the cliff after the dive to get back to the top. Most guys didn't have the upper-body strength for that, and most girls wouldn't even try. A diver's score was partially based on their dive, and partially based on the time it took them to return to the cliff top. If you couldn't make it, you were disqualified. And while this girl looked like she was in top shape, most simply lacked the upper-body stamina needed for the climb.

"I bet she'll make the climb," said Jack.

Will surprised himself by not taking up the bet. He had a feeling that there was something different about this girl, and that she'd succeed where dozens of others – male and female alike – had failed.


	3. Episode 1 Ch 2 The Boats

Chapter 2 – The Boats

"Get those boats in line!"

"Aye, sir! We're moving as fast as we can!"

"Move any slower and the fireworks won't be ready in time! Simmons, why haven't you dropped anchor yet!"

Phil was understandably flustered. Three summers ago – the last time he had had the honor of overseeing the annual fireworks show over the lake – someone in his crew had ordered the wrong-colored fireworks for the show's finale. He was still in shock that they had called him back for this year, and he wasn't about to let anyone mess it up again. The last thing he needed was another year of colleagues congratulating him on his "Christmas in July" show.

And now one of his men couldn't even keep his boat in place.

"_Simmons_!" Phil yelled. "Anchor! _Now_!"

The incompetent fool yanked a lever, and his boat's anchor splashed into the lake. The anchor's chain poured out of the hole in the side of the boat at an alarming rate; Simmons wasn't even bothering to check its speed. Before Phil could even yell at Simmons about _that_, the chain stopped; the anchor had hit bottom.

"God _dammit_, Simmons!" Phil yelled, but anything else he may have said was cut off as he and the rest of his crew stumbled sideways under some kind of tremor.

"Earthquake!" one of the men cried.

That hardly seemed possible. They were nowhere near a fault line, and Phil couldn't remember Cedar Grove having ever experienced an earthquake before. Water crashed against the side of the boats. Waves formed and broke all around the lake. Phil's own boat began to creak from the strain of his anchor being pulled in the waves.

"Weigh anchor!" Phil ordered. "But stay put! We are putting on this show if it's the last thing we do! Prep the 'works, come on!"


	4. Episode 1 Ch 3  The Diving Competition

Chapter 3: Will

One by one the divers took their turns. The order had been selected at random, and Ewan was sixth, with the girl, whose name apparently was April, was going dead last. If the others took long enough, she might have to dive at dusk, which could be dangerous. And it didn't help that the water lapping against the cliff's wall below was growing increasingly agitated, though Will couldn't feel the wind picking up.

And as each man dove, the possibility that April would have to dive at dusk – and climb in near-darkness – increased. Even though it took much longer, no one was allowed to dive while someone else was climbing back to the top, as a safety precaution, but this meant a lot of waiting around and cheering on the poor sap drenched from the lake, wearing hardly anything, slapped on the side of the cliff for anywhere between ten and forty minutes. By the time it was Ewan's turn, only one of the previous five had made it back to the top at all, and his climb time was a meager 46:37. The record form last year was just under fifteen minutes.

Ewan took his position at the cliff's edge. The cheering died down. The only sound now was the light breeze tickling the trees behind them. Ewan's cliff was a good twenty feet above the one everyone else was on, yet Will would have been nervous jumping from where he was. But Ewan… He often said that being somewhere high was the only place where he could empty his mind and focus. Will watched, amazed as he always was, as Ewan's toes hung over the cliff's edge. His eyes were closed, and he wasn't even trembling as most of the other divers had been. His leap looked as natural as a bird taking flight. He arched, twisting through the air, his body straight until he began to plummet. He adjusted in midair so that now he only somersaulted, which he did three times before disappearing beneath the lake's surface with hardly a splash.

"Damn," muttered Jack.

"Yeah," agreed Will. One of the best he'd ever seen, and Ewan had won championships.


	5. Episode 1 Ch 4 Rocking the Boat

Chapter 4: The Boats

Lightning flashed across the sky, though there were no clouds. Phil nearly dropped his armful of fireworks.

"Did you see that!" Simmons screamed. "It came from space!"

"Sir!" cried Phil's second-in-command, a usually level-headed fellow who now looked like he was on the verge of either soiling himself, diving over the boat's edge, or both. "We have to cancel the show!"

"Psh," said Phil. "Simmons is seeing things. You can't have lightning without clo—" Another bolt ripped through the sky, and Phil realized that a cloud had formed in its wake.

"Call me crazy," said his second, "but shouldn't the cloud come first, and then lightning? We have to get out of here, sir!"

"No!" said Phil again. "If the city wants to cancel the show, then they can call me, but until then we are not moving, understood?"

A flash of light. Phil's senses reeled; his head rang with the sound. Dimly he could feel something wet, like a thin mist on his face. But he couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't tell where he was, whether he was standing or lying down, or what had happened. All he knew was that the water felt pleasant and warm, and that was all he felt.


	6. Episode 1 Ch 5 Fireworks

Chapter 5: Will

The crowd burst into applause before Ewan even surfaced. When he finally did, it was right up against the cliff's wall. He exploded from the water and immediately latched onto the nearest hold. The four divers who hadn't made the climb began to jeer at him from a small platform built into the cliff for those who couldn't make the climb back. It had a small ladder that dipped down into the lake and another that went straight up the cliff to the performance gazebo where Will and the others now stood, but contest rules dictated that no one was allowed to climb up from the deck until everyone had gone, which meant that as each diver went, he or she faced louder and louder jeering.

Another reason why Will was worried for April.

But for now, Ewan was the one in trouble. Though his climb had started off strong, he had quickly hit a snag and couldn't figure out where to go next. The jeers from the loser's deck were nearly as loud as the cheers from Will's cliff, but if one thing could be said about Ewan, it was that he lacked Jack's patience. Increasingly Ewan slung taunts of his own over his shoulder, but this only made the loser's deck louder. Within minutes Ewan was completely twisting himself around to throw his most vicious insults back at the divers who had failed the climb.

Will heard the quake before he felt it. He had spent enough years along the coast to recognize that bone-rattling rumble, yet he couldn't believe that it was happening here. It wasn't until slabs of cliff began to fall above Ewan that his fears were confirmed. Slowly the sound of rock was overtaken by human screams as the onlookers scrambled away from the cliffs' edges.

Will and Jack fought through the crowd, which was now in full-blown panic-mode. People shoved them backwards as they struggled to get to the edge. Out of the corner of his eye Will could see more and more chunks of rock plummeting from the diving cliff, but with the crowd rushing all around him he could no longer see Ewan.

"Help!"

Will reached the cliff's edge and looked straight down to the loser's deck. One of the divers lay motionless, a great bloody gash ripped along his forehead. The cry for help had come from another. Will searched for the rope ladder that was let down at the end of the competition, but Jack was already kicking it over the edge.

"Ewan!" Will shouted. His friend still clung to the cliff, singularly determined to finish the climb. "Ewan! Get off the cliff, now!"

But Ewan only ignored him.

"Will!" shouted Jack. He pointed to the loser's deck. "We have to get him out of there!"

Will looked and saw the other divers scrambling up the rope ladder, leaving the unconscious one to bleed. Will threw his cell phone to Jack and prepared to jump.

Over the roar from the crowd, few saw the lightning flash. Will only caught its reflection off the water, yet it was enough to throw his mind out of focus as his feet left the ground. Lightning? There were no clouds. There shouldn't be lightning. And it shouldn't be so close.

Wind rushed through his hair, and Will realized with a start that he was falling out of control into the water between the cliffs. He missed the loser's deck by hardly a foot.

The water was colder than he had expected, and it jolted him back to the present. How stupid of him to let something as trivial as the weather break his concentration and almost kill him! He fought to right himself, but because of the way he fell he couldn't tell which was up and which was down. Worse still, the fall had knocked much of the wind out of him, and the water was churning from the quake. He tried to open his eyes, but all he saw was brown muck. If he didn't find the surface soon he could easily drown.

Something gripped his arm and yanked. His head broke the water's surface. Will gasped for air and thanked whatever god might be up there that he was alive.

"Are you alright?" someone yelled over the rush of the water, the rumble of the cliffs, and the panicked screams coming from dozens of feet above.

Will wiped his face and saw that the female diver – April – was in the water with him. "I… yeah," he muttered. "Did you…"

"Come on!" she said, and she took off towards the loser's deck. Will followed, feeling very foolish for having not taken off his shoes or shirt first. He felt like he was dragging an extra hundred pounds through the water. April was already up on the deck and checking the diver's vital signs by the time Will tumbled onto the platform. The diver didn't look good, that much was for sure. Blood oozed from a gash on his forehead, and he was whiter than Will's now-soaked t-shirt.

"He's still breathing," she said. "Give me your shirt."

Will did so. April wrapped it like a bandage around the boy's bleeding head. "Med school?" Will asked.

"Used to lifeguard. Any idea how we'll get him up the cliff?"

Will shook his head. "No chance. He's got to be at least 170 pounds of dead weight."

"Rescue boats?"

Will looked out to the lake. "There are the fireworks boats," he said, "but—"

Lightning struck from the cloudless sky. One of the fireworks boats exploded. Lightning struck again and again, each time blasting a boat into blazing cinders. Will cried out in shock. "Did you _see_ that?" he shouted.

"Will!" Will looked up; Jack stared down at him from the top of the rope ladder. "Tie the dude to the ladder! Jess and I can haul him up!"

Will took a deep breath and focused. No boats, no quake. No Ewan. No problems, just a solution. Will opened his eyes and hoisted the boy into his arms. April took the end of the ladder and wrapped it around the boy like a burrito and tied the ends to a ladder rung.

"Alright Jack, pull!" he yelled. After a second, the boy rose a foot or so, then another, then another. Will breathed a sigh of relief and dared a glance at the climbing cliff.

Ewan wasn't there.

"Did you see Ewan?" he asked.

"The climber?" said April. "He was still on the wall when I jumped. Not very smart, given the circumstances."

"That's Ewan for you." Will scanned the water for any sign, but there was nothing. "Ewan!" he shouted again. "_Ewan_!"

The platform shook so hard that April slipped and fell towards the edge. Will caught her arm and pulled her back. "Thanks," she said. "We need to get out of here."

Will agreed, but he wasn't sure how. Maybe Jack could let the ladder back down after they got the diver to the top. He looked up to check their progress and saw a large chunk of cliff headed straight for the deck.

Without even the time to warn her, Will tackled April off the deck. They were still in the air when he heard the deck shatter from the impact. He felt a shard nick his leg as they fell beneath the surface. This time, thankfully, Will didn't need help finding air again.

"What the hell is going on?" he gasped.

April shook her head. "I have no idea."

"Guys!" Jack's twin, Jess. Will could barely hear her over all the noise. "Are you alright?"

"We're fine!" Will called back. "But we can't find a way up!"

A new face appeared next to Jess'. "You could climb!"

Ewan. Another miracle for the day.

"Only a complete idiot would do that!" shouted Will.

"I'll take that as a compliment!"

Jack appeared next to them. "Here!" He threw a rope over the side. It splashed into the waves near them. Will and April swam to it and discovered that Jack had cut the two ropes of the ladder and tied them together to make one rope long enough to reach the water's surface.

"Smart friend," said April.

"Engineer," said Will. "You first."

April grabbed the end of the rope, and the three on the cliff began to drag her to safety. Will watched, eager for the rope to come back down for him. The waves were increasing, and he kept getting splashed by shards of cliff-face dropping into the lake. And even as he watched the cliff, another bolt of lightning ripped across the clear sky.

April's ascent was not easy. The cliffs shook so violently that Ewan, Jack and Jess had trouble keeping a hold of the rope. April, for her part, did her best to "walk" up the cliff's side, but more than once she had to leap to one side or the other to avoid falling rock. Will didn't want to think about what would happen if she or the rope got hit by anything. After a good five minutes, though, April reached the top, and three pairs of hands grabbed her arms and hauled her to safety. Soon it would be Will's turn.

A bolt of lightning struck the side of the diver's cliff with a blast so loud that Will could feel the explosion rock his entire body. Debris tumbled all around him, including one particularly large rock that fell beneath the waves hardly a foot in front of Will. The water from the splash was like a punch to the face, and for a moment Will was completely disoriented. Dimly he was aware of water washing over his face, but he could see nothing and hear only a dull rumble.

Then, something grabbed his leg and pulled.

Will opened his eyes and felt the sting of water. It was too dark to see, but something drew him closer.

Two points blazed with light before him. Will tried to shield his eyes, but his arms felt heavier than ever under the water and the stress of what he saw. The points, he realized, were eyes, the eyes of whatever held him. The light from the eyes cast wicked shadows on the rest of the being's face, but Will could see a sinister smile beneath an expanse where there should have been a nose.

"So helpful," the thing said. Its voice was light, but with a deep echo, and its eyes danced as it spoke. "What better an example of what happens to those who oppose Rita Repulsa."

The being surged upwards, taking Will with it. He nearly blacked out from the sudden G-forces, but as his sight came back to him he discovered that the being had leapt out of the water and onto the performance platform where Will had taught tae kwon do only a few hours before.

"Humans," the thing barked. Now it held Will from behind, so he couldn't see what it really looked like. But, given the reactions from Ewan and Jack, the only humans still on the cliffs, Will began to suspect that it was better that he didn't see. Its voice, though, sounded entirely different above water. The lighter voice was gone entirely, leaving only the deep echo, which sounded like it had chain-smoked for the past sixty years. "This one thought he could be _noble_," it spat out the word like it was painful to say. "But let his death be an example to the rest of you. Rita Repulsa rules the Earth now, and she will tolerate none of your feeble heroics!"

The quake had subsided. Somewhere in the back of Will's mind he noted that both Ewan and Jack looked positively soaked, though the stress of his current situation kept him from wondering why.

"Let go of him, you ugly bastard!"

Ewan always had a way with words.

The being laughed – or coughed, it was hard to tell. It spun around with Will in tow so that now they faced the edge of the cliff, where Ewan and Jack stood. Something about the lake behind them looked odd, but Will was too focused on his friends to care.

"You dare insult Goldar, General of Rita Repulsa's army?" the being asked. "Very amusing! Our army could use someone with your spunk!"

"Go to hell," said Ewan. "Will, you alright?"

Will started to answer, but the being – Goldar, it had called itself – kneed him in the back. He dropped to his knees. Goldar released him. Will heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed. Goldar laughed again. "Goodbye, hero," he said.

A feral scream ripped the air. Will heard Goldar grunt and fall to the ground beside him. Will scrambled away, still on his knees. Ewan rushed forward and helped him up. "Okay, buddy?" he asked. Will could only nod. Ewan helped him to his feet. "Dunno what's going on," said Ewan, "but we have to get out of here."

Will nodded again and looked behind him. His stomach fell as he realized what had happened. It was Jess who had tackled Goldar from behind. Jack was now trying to get his sister away from the beast, but it wasn't going well. What had somewhat resembled a jack-o-lantern underwater now looked a little bit like a gorilla with golden armor and flames for fur. Those eyes shone as brightly as they did beneath the waves, but Will had to wonder why he wasn't suffering from burns, nor were Jess and Jack as they wrestled with the ugly thing.

"Will!" shouted Ewan. "Come on!"

Goldar's sword lay on the ground, a chunk of metal wreathed in flame that had to be four or five feet long. Goldar punched Jack in the face and gripped Jess hard by the throat.

Will dove for the sword.

It was almost too heavy for him to hold, but he did what he could to make it look effortless as he pointed its tip at the throat of Goldar, who lay on the ground with Jess sitting on top of him, her throat still slowly being crushed.

"Let her go," Will ordered. His muscles strained with the sword's weight. How could anyone carry something so massively heavy?

Goldar chuckled. "Or you'll what?"

Will let the sword fall across Goldar's face. Fire leapt out of the gash cut into Goldar's cheek. The beast roared and let Jess go.

"You humans will rue the day your crossed us!" he shouted.

Goldar's body erupted into flames, and in an instant he was gone. Will dropped the sword and ran to Jess and Jack with Ewan and April.

"Can you breathe?" Will asked Jess. She nodded, though she couldn't stop coughing. Will looked her over, and then Jack. Both had taken a serious beating from Goldar. Jack's face was almost unrecognizable from the punch he'd taken and his glasses were shattered. Both of the twins sported several rips and tears in their clothing and skin, though most of the cuts looked superficial. Will just hoped they weren't infected. Even as he watched, Jack pulled a small bit of glasses lens from the bridge of his nose.

"What the _fuck_ is going on!" Ewan shouted. It sounded like Will wasn't the only one who couldn't calm down even though Goldar was gone. "What the hell was that thing? Why is the lake empty? And what the hell is that out there?"

"The lake?" Will asked. He stood and looked over past the cliff's edge to see that the entire lake, dozens and dozens of square miles of fresh water, had been completely emptied. "When did that happen?" he asked.

"Right after I climbed up," said April. "We were about to throw the rope back for you, and it was like the whole lake just exploded. We all got doused, and when we could see again, that thing was standing there with you." She pointed to the performing platform, where Goldar had held him just moments ago.

"Anyone's cell phones work?" Will asked. "Maybe the news has something." Jess' continued cough didn't comfort him, but as long as she could breathe he figured he could get her to a hospital later.

"Signal's out," said Jack. He winced as he pulled his phone from his pocket. Will suspected that some of his ribs were cracked or broken. Jack opened his phone's waterproof case and showed it to the others. "Whatever's going on is interfering with electronics. My guess is that no one's been able to get their cars out of the parking lot."

"That still doesn't answer the question of what the hell's out there in the middle of the lake," said Ewan. Will looked to where he was pointing. There was definitely something out there, like a building or something, but it was too far off for Will to be able to tell anything else.

Lightning struck, and again and again, near the parking lot. Will heard screams in the distance. Another bolt hit the trees between them and the path that led to the lot. The five shielded their eyes. The lightning had caught the trees on fire, but even through the flames Will could see people coming towards them.

"Will," Jack said. "How are we going to get out of here?"

But Will didn't hear him. He was too busy watching the people amongst the trees, for even as he watched, those people – perhaps a half dozen in total – walked straight through the fire. As they stepped, the flames appeared to shift away from them, and when one of them did touch a flame, it went out in a tiny poof of smoke. The six stepped out of the flames and stopped at the edge of the performance area.

Without a doubt, Will knew that these were soldiers of Goldar's. Where their faces should have been there were only eyes, the same glowing eyes of Goldar, like these things' heads were filled with nothing but flame themselves. They wore no clothes, but their skin had the look of dried mud. Their hands were misshapen and large, almost as if they were used for nothing but hitting things.

"Are those people?" Jack asked. "Why are they just standing there watching us?"

"Those aren't people," Will said. His back ached from the hit it had taken from Goldar, but he stood and faced the mud men. "Everyone get back."

"No… fucking way," coughed Jess. She hauled herself to her feet, coughing the entire way, and planted herself next to Will. He was more than a head taller than her, but the fierceness in her eyes more than made up for it. "These things… are invading, Will. We're not just going to sit back… and do nothing."

Will was about to point out the obvious – that Jack could barely see, that Jess could hardly breathe, that, as far as he knew, April had no martial arts training whatsoever, and that Ewan still only wore a Speedo. But when the four of them got to their feet and stood next to him, without a word, without the slightest bit of restraint or hesitation, who would he have been to try to stop them?

It was at that very moment, however, that Will was bathed in a strange white light, his feet left the ground, and he – surrounded by four other beams of colored light – shot through the air with such dizzying speed that Will had to wonder if he had died.


	7. Episode 2 Ch 1 Ewan

Episode 2, Chapter 1 – Ewan

Ewan McKay had long considered himself to be one of the manliest men he knew. He was in top shape, had scored countless beautiful women, had won more diving championships than anyone else in the country his age, and, by his count, had just broken the Cliff Diving Competition 's speed climb record by nearly a minute _during a fucking earthquake._

So one may understand his slight identity confusion when, just seconds after standing by Will against half a dozen mud monsters from hell, he became enveloped in yellow light, flew over what seemed like the entire Earth, landed inside a dark building in who the fuck knows where, and promptly threw up all over the floor. Not exactly the most flattering course of action for one's self image.

He swore and stood up, only to get rocked by nausea and vomit all over again.

"Fucking humans," someone said. There was something bizarre about his voice – not like that fire monkey Goldar, but perhaps not altogether human, either. Though honestly, after seeing everything he'd seen today – earthquakes in Cedar Grove, lightning in a clear sky, the entire lake exploding, some gorilla on fire trying to kill his friends, his own apparent flight across the world – having something _else_ speak to him who wasn't human seemed almost normal as far as Ewan was concerned.

"Holy shit," muttered Will. Apparently Ewan wasn't the only one to suddenly go Superman.

"Who…" said a girl's voice.

Ewan opened his eyes, but he stayed crouched over his throw up. He breathed through his mouth, but even then he could taste the tang of his own sick right beneath him.

A metal boot stepped into his view. "I expect you'll want me to clean that up for you?" It was the speaker from before, and the taunting edge in his voice was unmistakable. Ewan dared a glance up at the speaker's face and almost laughed. It had none. As best as Ewan could tell, this thing talking to him was a robot with a flying saucer for a head.

"Alpha," boomed a new voice from somewhere else in the room. "See to them. We have little time."

"God dammit," muttered the robot. "Always picking up after you useless humans. Why couldn't we just make automated zords…" The robot grabbed Ewan's shoulders and yanked him to his feet. Ewan's head swam again, but the robot placed a hand on Ewan's spine, and immediately he began to feel better. "And you humans think that machines are the only ones who can be hotwired. Hope you enjoy these hormones, asshole."

"The three of you should feel better momentarily," said the booming voice. It was deep, deeper than the fire monkey's had been, but where Goldar's voice sounded hoarse - like he had just spent the day at some concert – this guy's was calm and commanding. When this voice spoke, you listened. "Teleportation can throw bodies into disarray when they aren't used to it."

Ewan wiped his mouth and looked at the robot's head. It'd be at least a little less creepy if it had eyes. "Sounds like you aren't much of a fan of humans," Ewan said.

A sudden burst of heat shot out of the robot's hand and ran along Ewan's spine before disappearing. Ewan yelped and jumped, slipping in his own puddle of sick and falling flat on his ass.

"Alpha," the other voice said. "_Stop it_. These humans are different."

"Yes," muttered the robot. "That's what you said about the _last_ bunch."


	8. Episode 2 Ch 2 April

Episode 2, Chapter 2 – April

"The last bunch?" April repeated. "What do you mean?"

"We will explain in time," said the deep voice. "For now, we must allow your friends to heal so that the five of you can join together and stop Rita Repulsa's onslaught against your city."

April Johnson stood and took a proper look around. The room was dark, too dark to see exactly where the walls were. In the middle of the room stood a raised platform surrounded by panels of the most high-tech-looking equipment April had ever seen. Holographic images floated over the control boards, some showing some bizarre-looking machines, others projecting a human in a strange outfit, and another at the far end looked like it was an image of Goldar. A chill ran down April's spine just at the thought of that monster. When he had leapt from the water with Will in his arms, and April had seen those fiery eyes and that wicked smile, she had completely froze. If it hadn't been for Jess' quick thinking, Will – and possibly the rest of them – would be dead now.

On the other side of the control panels stood a huge cylindrical tank that seemed to emit light from within. It was cloudy, and as April stepped onto the central platform and stared at the tank, the liquid inside shifted, though its pattern remained unclear.

"Is something in there?" Will had stepped up beside her. He, too, was transfixed by the tank.

"I don't know," said April.

Ewan appeared on the other side of April. "What is this place?"

"You are on your planet's southern continent," said that same deep voice. As it spoke, April noticed the murky light of the tank swirl over itself in time with the voice's speech. "You are safe from Rita's attack on Cedar Grove, but I must send you back soon so that you may fight Rita and her army before she takes over your world."

"Woah woah woah," said Ewan, who really needed to put some clothes on. "Slow down there, mystic voice guy. Can we just take a moment here to give you a collective 'what the fuck?' Who the fuck's Rita? Who the fuck are you? What 'southern continent' are you talking about?"

"Ah yes," said the voice. "I have not introduced myself. There is much you should know, but every minute we spend talking in this Command Center brings Rita one step closer to recovering her stronghold on Earth and establishing dominion."

"Then just tell us three things," said Will. "Who are you? Where are Jess and Jack? And what do you want with us?"

The voice paused before it responded. "I believe the Power has chosen wisely," it said. "I am Zordon. For thousands of years I and others like me defended your planet from all manner of evil beings. Over time, our battles thinned our numbers until only I remained. Ten-thousand years ago I decided to try recruiting natives from this planet to help me in defense, and thus the first human team of Power Rangers was created."

"Power Rangers?" Ewan asked. "What a name."

The robot, Alpha, made a sound suspiciously like a mocking laugh. "Oh I am sure you in all your creative wisdom would have christened them with an infinitely superior title," it said.

"Yes," said Zordon. "The Power Rangers. Unfortunately, humanity was not ready for such power. Six humans were granted immense power, but one by one the Rangers of old turned on me and each other. I was unprepared for this; I thought I had chosen with greater wisdom, but I could only stand by and watch as the defenders of your planet betrayed and murdered each other. Only one Ranger stayed by my side. The power of the final Ranger banished the evil from the planet and locked it away under the ice of Mars, but the power needed was too great, and my last Ranger perished in this final act.

"Over the years, I have reclaimed and cleansed the powers of the five Rangers who died on this planet, but the power of the Ranger banished to Mars was too distant for me to reach, and now it has been unleashed from its prison."

"Rita Repulsa," said Will.

"Yes," said Zordon. "My former black Ranger."


	9. Episode 2 Ch 3 Where Here Is

Episode 2, Chapter 3 – Ewan

Ewan was about ready to take back what he had told himself earlier about believing whatever this Zordon fellow had to tell them since the rest of his day had been so batshit crazy. What this nut was saying had topped everything else, even the psychotic firemonkey.

"You put together a group of superheroes ten-thousand years ago," Ewan said, "and now a ten-thousand-year-old _human _chick who's been frozen in ice on Mars has just come back and wants to take over the world?"

"Those with the powers of the Rangers do not age," said Zordon. "Nor do I, for their powers are linked to me. I have defended your planet since before humans existed. Rita Repulsa was indeed locked away beneath the ice of Mars, but now she has escaped."

"I did hear something about a Mars exploration in the news recently," said Will. "Jack would know all about it. Where is he, Zordon?"

In response, soft lights illuminated an alcove to their left. Five beds lined the wall, and two were occupied. "They suffered greatly in their fight with Goldar," said Zordon. "The general of Rita's army is not to be trifled with. They will recover, and they can hear everything I say now, but the healing beds have placed them in stasis until they are recovered."

"Goldar hurt Will, too," April pointed out. "Should he be over there?"

"Goldar has a unique ability to cause severe internal damage when he wishes," said Zordon. "Goldar was merely toying with Will when he hurt him, so Will's wounds were minor compared to those of the twins. Alpha has limited healing capabilities built in to his systems, and he saw to Will's minor internal bleeding when you were first transported here."

"And where is 'here', again?" asked Ewan.

"Antarctica," said Zordon. "Those blessed with the Power may teleport here any time they wish. Should the five of you accept my offer, you will all be granted access to these facilities. While here, time passes more slowly than it does on the rest of the planet, making the Command Center ideal for strategic planning… as well as healing, though I should hope that that will not be necessary as often. You five would be granted the awesome power of the Power Rangers: immortality, increased strength and agility of body and mind, and access to technologies not to be seen by mortal humans for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

"And with that, I shall answer your third question, Will Weston, though by now it should be obvious. There is no denying that Rita Repulsa has returned to Earth. She is incredibly powerful, and unfortunately the ten-thousand years of banishment have only allowed her power to accumulate, making her more dangerous than ever before. If left unchecked, she will enslave all of humanity and use your race for galactic conquest. She is corrupt beyond all hope. I am asking the five of you to answer the call of the Power Rangers and form a team that will stop her and defend Earth from certain doom."

No one spoke. Ewan could hardly believe what he was hearing. A year ago, someone at a party had spiked his drink with LSD, and even the shit he'd seen on that acid trip couldn't compare with what this Zordon guy was saying. An ancient team of defenders gone bad. One remaining who had just been released from her prison. Five college students being asked to fight against her and an army of who knows how many crazy-ass monsters or else all of humanity would be enslaved.

"Can't the military fight her?" Ewan asked. Seemed obvious enough to him. What would five people barely old enough to legally drink accomplish that a few tanks couldn't?

"Earth's armaments are nothing to her," said Zordon. "Stand back, and observe."

A hologram rose from the center of the raised platform: a perfect representation of the Earth. As the three humans watched, the image grew larger and zoomed in on downtown Cedar Grove. Hundreds of Rita's mudmen lined the streets, absorbing bullet after bullet from a retreating police force. The image faded just as one of the mudmen grabbed a policeman by the neck, turned its free hand into a sword tip, and rammed the blade into the man's mouth.

"Great," muttered Ewan. "Thanks for that."

"They can only be stopped by the Power Rangers," said Zordon. "I believe the twins have fully recovered. You may stand and join your friends. I await your decision, humans."


	10. Episode 2 Ch 4 Jess

Episode 2, Chapter 4 – Jess

Jessica Kelly's head pounded. Too much drinking, perhaps. She was undeniably hung over, and she had just had the weirdest dream of her life. She, her brother, two of his idiot friends, and some other random girl were asked to save the world from an ancient witch who'd been locked away on Mars for the past few millennia. The thought was laughable; Jess couldn't even save her Intro Psychology grade, let alone the world.

She tried to open her eyes, but someone had left the lights on in her room, and their brilliance unleashed a fresh wave of pain through her head. Groaning, she hauled herself to the side of the bed and tried to sit up, but the floor wasn't where it usually was, and her legs flailed for a moment trying to find it before she tumbled forwards and found the floor with her face instead. Dimly, she was aware that someone had replaced her room's carpet with cold steel. Something wasn't adding up here.

She heard someone run across the room and pull her to a seated position. "Are you alright?" It was Will, Jack's med student buddy.

"Get out of my room," Jess muttered.

"I…" Will fumbled.

"Sis." Jack was somewhere nearby. Something in his voice was off, but Jess was in no mood to figure out what was bothering him. "We're not in your room."

Jess made to argue, but Will helped her to her feet, and she understood as soon as she opened her eyes.

She hadn't been dreaming.

"Fuck," she said.


	11. Episode 2 Ch 5 Jack

Episode 2, Chapter 5 – Jack

He hadn't been dreaming. Jack Kelly really was standing in an alien Command Center on the Antarctic continent, and everything Zordon had just said – whether it was true or not – really _had_ been said. The lake really had come under attack, and that Goldar monster was real. The memory of him alone led Jack to believe Zordon's words, impossible though they seemed.

"Jack," said Will. Even though Jack was feeling better, his glasses must not have survived the encounter, so the room was mostly just a haze of colors. "You alright?"

"Better," he admitted. "Thank you for healing us, Zordon."

"Others at the lake were not as fortunate as you," the voice said. "Many have died today."

Jack fumbled forward. Anything more than two feet away from his face fell so far out of focus as to be unidentifiable. Jack was used to it, but it didn't make getting around any easier.

"Alpha," said Zordon. A bronze haze shifted to Jack's right. He turned to it and received the shock of his life when it came into view. There, standing before him, was a robot.

"Woah!" Jack gasped. "A fully sentient, multifunctional automaton!"

"Hmph," said Alpha. "Maybe I shouldn't give you these after all. Sounds like you're all geeked out as it is."

"Alpha…" warned Zordon. The robot sighed and placed something in Jack's hands. It was a small black machine that looked like the things Jack's dad put on his nose to keep from snoring at night.

"Put it on your nose, Mr. Myopia," said Alpha. Jack did so. Two thin lenses came out from the machine and in front of his eyes, and in an instant the most beautiful room Jack had ever seen came into focus. He became a whirlwind of curiosity, flittering from console to console as he sought to understand the incredible advanced technology of this strange Command Center. The others began to debate while he moved around.

"Can we go home now?" Ewan asked.

"After hearing all of that?" asked Will. "You can't be serious."

"Oh c'mon Will. As if any of that's real. You can't live for ten-thousand years just by being frozen in ice; even _I_ know that!"

"This is different," said Will. "We're looking at alien technology here. There's no telling what it could do. I mean, you saw what Goldar did to Jack's face, right? And now look at it; he's completely healed."

"Still ugly, though."

"Hey," said Jess. "Cool it. We have to decide on this shit right now."

"That's right," chimed in April. "Time may move slower here, but it's still moving, and Goldar and all those mudmen are rampaging through Cedar Grove."

"Who the fuck are you, anyway?" asked Ewan.

"My name is April. My family just moved here. They… I thought maybe the diving contest would be a good place to meet people before the new semester."

"Well good for you. You and Will can join this Zordon guy who we can't even _see_ and pretend to go save the world. I say the rest of us bug out, let the great and powerful Oz pick some other team of schmucks to do his dirty work."

"He chose _us_," said Will.

"He chose poorly," countered Ewan.

"I think we can do this. I mean, if Zordon's right, we could be doing the most important thing that any Earthling has ever gotten to do. Come on, man. Remember how you used to always go as Superman for Halloween, even into high school?"

"Dude," Ewan shushed Will. "Shut it; no one needs to hear that."

"Well, now you can be Superman! With us! We'd be like the Justice League!"

"Better hold it on this 'us' crap, Will," said Jess. "You may be all gung-ho for this superhero stuff, but I don't know if I'm up for it, either."

"Me too," said April. "We'd be giving up our lives for this. Everything we've done up to this point would have been for nothing. We'd have to abandon our friends, our families, our futures…"

"We won't have _any_ of those anyway if we don't do this," said Will. "Our lives would have been for nothing anyway."

No one had an answer for that.

"You must decide quickly," said Zordon. "Cedar Grove cannot take much more."

"Jack," said Will. "Thoughts?"

Jack 's eye caught a hologram of Goldar. The detail was incredible, and even as he watched, the hologram moved in slow-motion and punched a hologram-Jack dead in the face. Stats appeared under Goldar's fist detailing velocity, kinetic energy, and so on.

"The tech here is incredible," Jack said. "It might be enough to give us an edge. You and Ewan are the only real friends I have. If doing this means watching your backs as well as protecting my family, count me in."

"Then me, too," said Jess. She shot Jack the smallest of smiles. "Someone has to watch _your_ back."

April had been staring at the floor, but now she looked Will dead in the eye. "What you said about us losing everything if we don't do this," she began, "I… can't ignore that. This is greater than all of us. I'm willing to sacrifice my own life for the sake of Cedar Grove and the rest of the world."

Will smiled and nodded. "Thank you," he said. He turned to Ewan. He didn't have to ask; there was only one answer left to hear.

"Can't do it," Ewan shook his head. "It's just too much. Zordon, shoot me home. I'm out."

"It saddens me to hear that," said Zordon. "But very well. I shall teleport you to your home, but the rest of you: prepare yourselves for the defense of Cedar Grove."


	12. Episode 3 Ch 1 Will Power

Episode 3, Chapter 1 – Will

Ewan made no eye contact as Alpha stepped up to a console and began to press a few buttons, and before they knew it, Will and the others watched Ewan's body become enveloped in golden light and shoot upwards through the ceiling. Ewan was gone.

"Now," began Zordon, "it is time for me to grant the four of you the awesome abilities of the Power Rangers."

"You have _no_ idea what you're in for," muttered Alpha.

"Where I come from," Zordon said, "we believe that each organism is composed of seven aspects. When I created the Rangers, I did so by breaking my own essence down into these seven. I kept one – the essence of wisdom – so that I could guide the Rangers. The other six I imparted to the humans I chose. As I have mentioned before, the black Ranger – carrying the essence of ambition – was the first to turn away from me."

"Rita Repulsa," said Will.

"Yes. When isolated, an organism's essence of ambition will overpower it and consume it until there is nothing left. This was my greatest oversight, and now the Earth is paying for my lack of foresight."

"So we're here to clean up your mess," said Jess. "Great. So much for 'good of the planet' and all that shit."

"It still _is_ for the good of the planet," said Will.

"I shall explain more when we have time, but for now, step forth, and receive your power coins!"

Alpha stood before them and held out both hands. In each were two golden coins about the size of a half-dollar. One by one the humans stepped forward and grabbed a coin. Will was last, but he had known which coin was his from the moment Alpha opened his hands, almost as if the coin called to him. On its face was a golden lion with a white mane.

When he touched the coin, a jolt of electricity shot up his arm, and a flash of something indistinct passed before his eyes, like some forgotten memory.

"These coins are linked to my life force," Zordon explained. "You may experience momentary visions of my memories. Glean what you can from these, as you may see Rita Repulsa, or perhaps even the Rangers who came before you. Knowledge is power, and you will need everything in order to beat this evil."

"I feel… strange," muttered Jess.

"What do we do with these?" asked Will.

"These are your anchors to the Ranger essences," said Zordon. "When you possess your coin, you may call upon its power and be transformed into a Power Ranger."

"And how do we do that?" asked Jess.

But Will already knew. Somehow, deep within him, he knew what he had to do. Suddenly, he realized what that brief memory had been about. He knew what his power was.

Will squeezed the coin in his hand.

"_Honor_," he whispered, and he began to transform.


	13. Episode 3 Ch 2 Can't Find the Melody

Episode 3, Chapter 2 – Jess

Jess nearly shit a brick. Though she stood furthest away from Will, she heard him whisper "_honor_" as clearly as if he'd spoken it just inches from her ear. But that wasn't what shocked her. No sooner had the word left his mouth than Will disappeared in brilliant light that shifted and spun around him in a frenzy of white and grey.

And just like that, a Power Ranger stood before them.

Where once Will had stood there was now a man adorned in dark leather armor from shoulder to foot. Fine patterns of white spun through the armor, the same color white as the cloth hood that enveloped the man's head and neck. From under the hood, Jess could just make out a pair of white eyes glowing back at her. No one looking at him would be able to tell that it was Will, but there he was, standing tall and looking downright scary. Jess could feel the power of this new Ranger just by looking at him.

"The White Ranger," said Zordon. Jess heard the distinct proudness in his voice, and for some reason it pissed her off. "Holder of honor, and the last Ranger to stand by my side."

"I heard him, Zordon," said Will. When he spoke, Jess heard two voices: Will's in her head, and a different voice aloud. "I heard the last Ranger speak the word."

"Very good. It is fitting that the leader of the Rangers should be the first."

"But," said Jess, "aren't _you_ the leader?"

"I cannot lead," said Zordon. "Not while I am trapped here. That was the sacrifice I made when I created the Rangers. Honor is incorruptible. Honor is humble. Honor always leads to the right solution, and Will embodies all that is honorable and true. He will make a perfect leader for this team."

"It's real," said Jess. "This is really happening."

"How did you know what to do?" April asked.

The glowing eyes of the White Ranger turned to April, but she didn't flinch. "Zordon mentioned memories. I heard the last Ranger say 'honor', and deep down I just knew what to do. I can't explain it, really." He looked down and noticed a black tool belt for the first time. He reached to his side and withdrew a strange-looking pistol of white before holstering it again.

"So what do the rest of us do?" asked Jack.

Jess recalled what she had seen when she touched her power coin. There had been a face – a beautiful woman in black. This woman had a wicked smile, and her eyes were a pale yellow with cat-like slits. Somehow Jess didn't have to guess who _that_ was.

Jess looked at her coin again. On its face was some sort of lizard with fiery red eyes. She glanced at the others. Jack and April were studying their coins, too. The White Ranger, meanwhile, stared at his gloved hands, which were pulsing with white energy.

"I feel something when I look at it," April said, more to herself than the others. "I can hear the word, but I can't make it out, like someone's speaking to me underwater."

Jess was getting tired of waiting. "Why don't you just tell us what to do!"

"That would ruin the fun of watching your frustration," said Alpha.

"You must find the power within yourselves," said Zordon. "Neither I nor anyone else can find it for you."

"I know you guys can do it," said Will. "Feel for the word. It's there. It always has been; you just have to find it."

"God dammit," Jess swore. "We don't have time for this shit! Our city's being destroyed, and you want us to sit here and 'find our inner power'? Screw you. Will, why don't you get your ass out there and slow them down or something?"

"He should not go out there alone," said Zordon. "You are a team. One Ranger alone is vulnerable."

"Then help us, god dammit!"

"Hey," said April, "it'll be okay." Jess was surprised how soothing April's voice was. For the briefest of moments, Jess calmed down. And just like that, April's eyes went wide, and she let out a gasp. "_Harmony_," she said.

A soft, cool blue glow washed over April and disappeared again just as quickly as Will's white light. In April's place there now stood a woman in armor similar to Will's but with blue trim and a blue hood instead. On her chest was stamped a symbol of some kind of bird with a blue body. From the back of the hood streamed long hair that pulsed with different colors of the sea and drifted through the air as if April was underwater. And from under that hood stared a pair of glowing blue eyes to match Will's white. The intensity of them hurt Jess' own eyes, and she had to look away.

"Oh my God," April whispered. Like Will, her voice was dual: April's in Jess' head, and an echoing _other_ in the air.

"My Blue Ranger," announced Zordon. "Holder of harmony. You adapt quickly and will see both sides of any argument. Where there is strife, you will not rest until it is resolved. You are the peacekeeper of the Ranger team. Without harmony, discord flourishes."

The White Ranger tapped the Blue Ranger on the shoulder and pointed at the cylindrical tank. The Blue Ranger gasped but said nothing.

_Fuck this_, Jess thought. She stamped her foot. "Okay," she said. "This has gone on long enough. Neither Jack nor I have the slightest idea what our god damn 'words of power' are, and I don't know about him, but nothin's exactly comin' to mi—"

A single word from Jack cut her off. "_Strength_," he said, and he, too, began to transform.


	14. Episode 3 Ch 3 Like Christmas

Episode 3, Chapter 3 – Jack

Jack felt it more than he saw it: dark green, like moss on tree bark, enveloped his body much as the white and the blue had for Will and April, respectively. Jack's heart accelerated. His muscles tensed, and for the briefest of moments Jack could swear that he saw and understood all that went on within the Command Center.

"_Welcome to the team, Jack_." Will's voice spoke inside Jack's head, though he heard nothing. He opened his eyes and gasped.

Playing around his vision – which was better than it ever had been – was a heads up display. He wore no glasses or goggles. Without even looking he knew that he was wearing the same hooded armor that Will and April now wore, and he suspected that his eyes were glowing, and that they were glowing green. Whatever technology the Power Rangers possessed, it apparently included tapping a HUD straight into a Ranger's brain.

"Amazing," Jack said. He observed his hands, his chest, his belt, everything except the very thing that normally had his undivided attention: Jess. He knew she was watching him, and dimly he was aware that she hadn't said a word since he transformed, but he was too caught up in checking out his own armor to notice. His HUD scanned each organism in the room as he looked at them and spat out all sorts of information, much like the hologram of Goldar he had seen earlier. "What any Earthen scientist wouldn't give for this sort of technology," he said. "The database is absolutely incredible! Zordon, how long did it take to compile this information?"

"I haven't just been sitting idly by these past ten-thousand years," said Zordon. Only, for the first time, Jack noticed Zordon's voice coming from a specific direction. He turned and looked at the huge cylindrical tank. There, just beyond the milky clouds, was a face, humanoid… and yet entirely _other_. Jack shuddered, though he knew Zordon was a being of good. The face was staring at him. IT felt like Zordon was boring into Jack's soul. "Allow me to introduce the rest of you to our Green Ranger," said Zordon. "Holder of strength."

Finally, Jess spoke up. "Oh that's a good one!" she laughed. "_Strength_? I think you got the wrong guy."

Jack had thought the same thing. As soon as Will had transformed, the word _strength_ fell into Jack's mind, but he had pushed it aside. He was convinced, as Jess still was, that there had been a mistake. _Strength_? Of mind, at best. Jack had asthma, for goodness' sake. What kind of strong man carries an inhaler?

"_Strength_ is many things, Jessica," Zordon answered. Now that Jack knew where Zordon was, it was hard to look away. When he spoke, his mouth didn't quite match up with the words, almost as if there was a large time delay between what Jack saw and what Jack heard. "This team will depend on someone with Jack's strength of character if you are to overcome Rita and her dark army. Those who are not strong of body are the ones who truly value strength. Jack, in time you will see that this is so. Part of your strength comes from the very fact that you do not know just how strong you are."

"Thank you Zordon," Jack said. He noticed that when he spoke aloud, his audible voice was different, just as the others' had been, and finally it hit him why this was. "_Our voices sound different so that people won't know who we are!_" he thought.

The White and Blue Rangers turned to him. "_That's what I thought, too_," April's voice said in his mind. "_We can hear each other's thoughts in our own voices. This is some technology._"

"_I wonder how far it can reach_," thought-spoke Will.

But one thing still bothered Jack.

"Zordon?" he asked. Jack indicated the symbol on his chest. "Why a crocodile? One would expect an ape, or a bull, or a rhinoceros beetle or something."

At this, Zordon actually chuckled. "An animal that has evolved so little since the age of the dinosaurs as to be essentially unchanged? If that does not embody the virtue of strength, then I don't know what does."

Jess cleared her throat. "Well if you're all done congratulating each other on changing into your nice little uniforms then I think I'm just going to step outside for a bit."

"Sis," said Jack, "it's minus-60 degrees outside. The sun doesn't even shine this time of year."

"So the fuck what?"

Jack stepped closer, so that only Jess could hear. "So, I want you to figure this out as much as you do. Once you're ready, we can go save Cedar Grove."

"Jesus, would you stop staring at me with those eyes? It's like some horror movie or something."

"I bet yours'll be terrifying." That got a small grin out of her. Will and April began to speak to Zordon and Alpha about the plan of attack, but right now Jack knew where he was needed most. "We weren't brought here by accident, Jess. The right word is in there, I know it. What did you see when you touched the coin?"

Jess crossed her arms and continued to look away. "Nothing."

"Bullshit."

"I didn't see anything, alright? Didn't hear anything, didn't feel some magical word just begging to be said so that I can wear a turban like the rest of you wackos. I still don't get why Zordon was crazy enough to pick the four of us."

"Five. He picked Ewan, too."

"And what a great choice _that_ was."

"I don't know why Zordon picked us, but he did. Will's one of the most selfless, honorable guys I know. I don't think it was an accident that his power comes from _honor_. And I don't know April very well, but there is something very peaceful about her. _Harmony_ does seem fitting."

"Yours is still total shit, though. _Strength_? Come on. You should have seen your face after that Goldar creep smashed it in."

"I don't understand it either." Jack grinned. "But I will say one thing: it took some serious balls to tackle him like you did."

Jess punched him in the shoulder. Jack didn't feel a thing; perhaps there was more to this cloth and leather than he thought. "Balls?" laughed Jess. "Don't got 'em. You should know that by now."

"Maybe you should have gotten _strength_."

Curiously, Jess finally abandoned her tough girl act. Her arms fell to her sides and her face was downcast. "Hmph. No, you deserve it, I guess. Weak as you are, it must've taken some real courage to… Oh… fuck." She squeezed her power coin and looked at Jack. He knew that glint in her eye. She'd found her word. "_Courage_!" she shouted.


	15. Episode 3 Ch 4 The News

Episode 3, Chapter 4 – Meanwhile…

"…Judy Lang, reporting to you live for CNN. I'm here in downtown Cedar Grove, where state troopers have joined the CGPD to try to stop this terrorist attack. Reports on the ground have now confirmed that the troops, called 'mudmen' by many who witnessed them firsthand, appear to be led by what others can only describe as a 'demon'. Due to the nature of this man, we have been unable to get close enough for a shot, but our helicopter is circling the city now to try to locate him. There is still no word on where this army came from or its link to the strange meteorological events from earlier on this Fourth of July. As you may recall, there were widespread reports of the entire Cedar Grove lake exploding after a lightning storm that many say happened without rain clouds. CNN cannot confirm these reports at this time, as those who survived the events at the lake all say that their cameras no longer work. Experts speculate that this may be due to some sort of electrical shortage related to the lightning storm…"

CNN's news chopper had burned nearly half its fuel to get to Cedar Grove. Apparently, it was the only one within hundreds of miles not affected by the freak electrical storm. The crew had been thrown together at a moment's notice, and neither were too happy about leaving their families for the holiday, even for a story as out-of-this-world as this one. The crew spoke little during the flight, and even less once they got there.

Cedar Grove was a wasteland.

Most of the buildings were more or less intact, but the only light source now was fire, and lots of it. When they could see through the smoke, which was rare, the helicopter team could swear that all the roads of downtown had been paved with flames. Dark figures strode through the fires unaffected, but as for this supposed demon-leader they were supposed to find, no one was sure where to even start looking. It took them nearly twenty minutes just to find the thin line of Cedar Grove police and state troopers still fighting off the "mudmen", and as soon as they started filming, they wished they hadn't. Their camera's zoom picked up every bullet that zipped through the mudmen's torsos without the slightest impact, and it captured on film the gruesome deaths of over a dozen men and women in uniform. The cameraman vomited out the chopper's window. The pilot – an old Vietnam vet – felt like he was back in the war, only here the jungle was made of concrete. Part of him wished for some Agent Orange to dump on these bastards, but CNN had neglected to supply the helicopter with any.

Near the police line, someone with a flamethrower torched a car until it exploded.

"That's him!" the cameraman shouted. "That's the demon! Holy shit…"

"Send the feed to the station," said the pilot. He wanted out of here. Reporters weren't supposed to put their lives in danger like this. They still didn't know where this army came from. They might be from one of the countries that like to target the media. They'd already established that civilians were high on their list of targets.

"Fuck," said the cameraman. "You need to see this guy! He's not human!"

"Just a costume, man," said the pilot. "Just trying to scare everyone."

"No, really! He is literally on fire. His sword is the flamethrower! This thing is. Not. Human."

"Let the station deal with the technicalities," answered the pilot. "I'm taking us out."

The pilot had hardly started to turn the chopper when the cameraman verbally wet himself. "Shit! Shit shit shit! He sees us! The demon thing sees us!"

"So what? You said he has a flamethrower? We're hundreds of feet in the air, there's no way—"

The cameraman screamed and leapt out the helicopter door. Hardly a second later, something rocked against the bottom of the vehicle. The chopper's tail exploded off. The heli began to spin… and fall.

It really was like 'Nam all over again.

The pilot fought the controls, but he knew it was pointless. No tail, the rotor probably broken as well. Really, it was astonishing that they weren't falling faster than they were. The pilot knew that jumping out would be impossible. The only parachutes had been in the back, which was now missing. He just hoped that the cameraman had at least taken one before he'd jumped.

Buildings spun into his view. The screeching beep from his control panel would _not_ shut up, and yet what frustrated him most was not knowing just how in the hell that "demon" guy had knocked him out of the sky with a sword and a flamethrower. There was just no way, no fucking w—

Impact, but something was wrong. Namely, the pilot wasn't dead. Hell, the chopper wasn't even on fire anymore. He checked himself. All body parts were still there, nothing was bleeding except his forehead, which he dimly remembered whacking when the chopper was first hit. He looked outside. Unless he was imagining things, he was hovering about three feet above the ground, on a mesh of multicolored light. Finally, he looked out the gaping hole in the back.

There, watching him from atop the multicolored mesh, were four robed and armored people with strange glowing eyes. One of them – the one with green eyes – carried the cameraman, who was alive and sobbing hysterically.

"Are you alright, sir?" asked the one in white.

The pilot could only nod.

The one with red eyes nodded at the cameraman. "We caught your friend. Idiot jumped without a parachute."

"You will be safe if you head west," said the one in blue. She – for it was obviously a "she" – pointed in a direction. Their voices were strange, otherworldly, even.

Again the pilot nodded, but this time he found his voice. "Who… are you?"

The white one took a step forward. "We're the Power Rangers."

The green one set the cameraman down, and in unison the four Power Rangers turned and leapt towards the east and out of sight.


	16. Episode 3 Ch 5 Home

Episode 3, Chapter 5 - Ewan

Teleporting the second time was not as bad as the first, though it still wasn't what one might call fantastic. Ewan landed on pavement and immediately fell to his knees. Within seconds his nausea was gone, and he dared to look up and figure out where the hell he was… once his eyes adjusted to the dark.

Smoke filled the sky all around him, and it was quiet – far too quiet for Cedar Grove suburbia on Fourth of July eve. He recognized the street corner. Alpha and Zordon, as some kind of joke, had teleported him to his mom's house instead of his dorm. He didn't feel like asking how they knew where his mother lived. Creepy alien stalker bastards.

Still wearing only his star-spangled speedo, he took off in a sprint for his house.

His bare foot found broken glass from an exploded car hardly fifteen feet from the street corner. He yelled in surprise and pain and cursed the car before hobbling past it along the sidewalk. More exploded cars littered the road, but Ewan was a quick learner, and he gave each a wide berth. For a moment he was thankful for the fires in the cars – all lights were out, and it was well past nightfall now – but then he realized how horrible a thought that was and decided instead to hope that no one was in the cars when they blew. He didn't have the heart to look inside for bodies as he passed.

With every step, his apprehension grew. The entire block was silent. His family lived close to one of Cedar Grove's main highways, and he couldn't even hear sirens or the usual traffic from there. Something was horribly wrong, and unfortunately he had a pretty good idea of what that was. Surely Rita Repulsa wouldn't bother with a small little neighborhood, though. Terrorists never attacked neighborhoods. They attacked the financial district, or City Hall or something. Hell, why weren't they attacking Washington D.C.? Why Cedar Grove?

Ewan froze when he reached the remains of his mother's house. He took in none of it – the shattered windows, the smoking holes in the roof, the collapsed chimney. He just wanted to be home.

The front door looked like it had been boarded up from the outside, but now the boards were little more than smoldering ash.

Ewan hobbled awkwardly over the remains of the door and swore loudly. His foot had found more broken glass. He hopped to the downstairs bathroom and pulled the first aid kit out from under the sink. "Mom!" he shouted. She'd lived alone ever since he went to college. She'd practically begged him to keep living at home, but he'd had none of it. All his other siblings had gone out of state; Ewan was all she had left, but she was batshit crazy. He had a special ringtone just for her, and he heard it more than his normal one. He never picked up. "Mom!" he called again.

He sat down on the sink's counter and checked out his bloody foot. He counted four shards of glass lodged in the ball of his foot and another two in his heel. He yelled as he yanked each out, and he yelled some more as he poured hydrogen peroxide over the wounds. The bandages felt good, though, and he was good at applying them. Having a pre-med nerd like Will for a friend had its perks.

Ewan hopped off the sink and left to search the house. The downstairs didn't look so bad – the couch was smoking, the TV screen was busted, and all the windows were broken – Ewan stayed far from them – but otherwise the damage seemed like nothing a few insurance claims couldn't handle.

The upstairs, though, was another matter.

Ewan's mom's room was up there, as was his and his sisters'. A huge gaping hole greeted him in his mother's bedroom. The dresser was partially hanging out a hole in the wall, and the bed was little more than a smoldering ruin. No body, though. He checked his sisters' rooms, though they were in much the same state.

Finally, Ewan entered his old room.

The few swimsuit model posters he hadn't taken to college had been torn down and ripped to shreds. His bed had a black smoking hole in the middle, and his ceiling fan sat battered and broken at the foot of his bed. The dresser, though, was untouched.

Ewan did a double-take. There, on his dresser, was a golden coin.

"The fuck?" he muttered. American coins weren't gold, and he sure as hell hadn't left any money when he went to college. He limped to the coin and looked it over. It was about the size of a half-dollar, but much thicker, and on its face was stamped a crazy-looking bird that clearly was not an American eagle.

He picked the coin up to see what was on its back and was rocked by a vision. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen stood atop a cliff overlooking a village in flames. The place looked old – all of the "buildings" were little more than thatched huts – but the people running and screaming from their homes were plainly terrified. Ewan heard them plea to the gods, even from where he stood. He could feel their fear. The woman in black chuckled.

Someone else stepped into view. It was a woman, dressed in the same animal leathers as the villagers. The woman in black turned to greet her.

"Bitch!" spat the newcomer.

The dark woman smiled. Ewan felt a chill run down his spine. It was not a friendly smile. "Now now," the woman in black cooed. "Is that any way to greet an old friend?"

The newcomer reached for something within her clothes. "You'll pay!" she shouted, and then she screamed a word that Ewan knew but didn't understand. The vision faded.

"_Ewan_."

Ewan nearly leapt out of his speedo. There was a voice inside his head. "Fuck!" Ewan yelled.

It was that Zordon creep. "_Ewan, if you can hear this, then you are holding the coin. Alpha and I were monitoring your mother's house. We knew Rita's army had invaded the area. You may be wondering where she is. I can say that she is alive… but in some ways that is worse than death. Those who do not physically oppose Rita's army are enslaved, and she is not kind to her slaves. If you wish to help your mother, you must take that coin and join your friends_."

"Asshole!" Ewan screamed. He didn't care if Zordon could hear him or not. "You knew they were coming for her and you didn't stop them! Why the FUCK should I help you?" He held his coin up and stared at the ceiling. For some reason, he felt like if Zordon was watching him, it'd be from above. Zordon seemed egotistical like that. "Why the fuck did you send this coin and not, oh I don't know, one of your god damned Power Rangers to save my mom! FUCK YOU!"

"_Ewan. You must listen to me. I did not choose the five of you. That was my mistake ten-thousand years ago. I chose people whom I thought would be the best, and look where it has led us. Over the past ten millennia, I reclaimed five of the six powers I bestowed and cleansed them of any taint they had gained in the fight against Rita's ambition. I know what it is you saw when you touched the power coin. It seems that the powers have chosen with a cruel sense of irony. The coin you now hold belonged to the first Ranger to fall. Rita lured her out by burning her village to the ground, and now here you are, standing within the ashen shell of your mother's home. I am sorry, Ewan, but all is not lost. You know what to do_."

Ewan _did_ know what to do. The word spoken in his vision made sense now. He had never cared for his mother, but somehow, seeing this house without her and knowing that she was locked away somewhere by Rita to be used as a slave… That was too much. Ewan wasn't even about to stand for that.

He squeezed the golden coin so hard his palm was throbbing. Then he thrust his clenched fist into the air and bellowed the word spoken by the former ranger, followed, of course, with a bit of his own flair. "_Spirit_, MOTHAFUCKAS!"


	17. Episode 4 Ch 1 Riot Control

Episode 4, Chapter 1 - April

She couldn't believe it. April, Will, Jess and Jack had just saved a helicopter pilot and his cameraman, and they had done it with _alien_ _technology_. What was perhaps even stranger was that Zordon had given them no training on how to use these powers. They had simply teleported to the city, seen the helicopter going down, and acted. It was like they had been doing this for years. As one, the four of them had pulled anti-grav nets from their belts and thrown them across to one another so that both the falling cameraman and the entire helicopter landed light as a feather. The look on the pilot's face had said it all: if they did nothing else right today, at least they knew they had saved two lives.

Now the four of them stood atop one of the buildings overlooking the line of mudmen that steadily marched towards the officers with their riot shields and guns. Goldar had disappeared after lobbing that fireball at the helicopter. April feared to imagine where he'd run off to. His gleeful laughter when he saw the chopper explode made her sick.

"Thirty-two mudmen," Jack reported.

"Eight a piece," said Jess. "Let's get down there and whoop their asses. I feel like I could take down an army in this suit."

"Hold on," cut in Will. "We formed a plan back in the Command Center." He pulled his pistol from his belt. "It's not flashy, but it's our best bet. Jess, you and John get to those buildings over there." Will pointed at two rooftops on the other side of the road, and as he did, April's HUD marked the spots Will meant. "April, you get on that balcony." A building on this side of the street, closer to the line of officers. "We hit the mudmen from both sides. They're unprotected down there—"

"Screw that," Jess said. "I'm not just gonna sit up here and take pot shots. After what they've done, I wanna get up in their faces and watch the life go out of their god damned eyes. Come on!"

Jess leapt from the building.

Will sighed. "So much for planning," he said. He leapt after her, and Jack after him.

April glanced over the ledge. They were six stories up. She'd dove from higher before, but never onto concrete. She took a deep breath and plunged.

Her HUD kept track of things during the long fall: her velocity, distance to the ground, awareness level of the mudmen, heart rates of the policemen and troopers. The line of mudmen had reached a car with a civilian inside. As the Rangers descended, one mudman reached straight through the glass of the car window and pulled a screaming woman right out onto the pavement. The mudman drew back a hand that reformed into a blade.

Jess landed on his back a second later.

Will landed foot-first on another's head and crushed it instantly. Jack body-slammed three at once. Before she even knew how she did it, April had withdrawn her pistol and shot two mudmen in the chest before landing in a handstand on the head of a third. He crumpled to the ground under her, and she tumbled gracefully into a somersault that carried her straight into the path of another mudman. She leapt up from her roll and gave his chin a solid uppercut. He flew well over a dozen feet away and crashed butt-first into the windshield of a car on fire.

"_Nine down, twenty-three to go_," thought-spoke Will. April thought she detected a hint of amusement in his voice, but she didn't know him well enough to be sure. She could only assume that he, like her, was amazed at how natural this felt.

April's HUD detected movement behind her. Without even looking, she ducked left and swept her legs back. A mudman with a club for an arm fell on top of her, and the two of them wrestled for the upper hand. Up close, his face was even more terrifying than she had first thought. Pure fire blazed in his eye sockets, and deep cracks radiated along his skin from his eyes. This one had no nose, though April had seen others who did.

The mudman had worked his way on top of April, and as she fought with him, he bared thin fangs of rock and tried to bite her throat. She kneed his stomach, punched his chest, and then rocked herself backwards and caught his head between her legs. With a deft, corkscrew-like twist, she propelled herself up and onto her feet and spun the mudman's head halfway around on its neck in one move. He crumpled to the pavement and turned to dust that scattered in the wind.

"_Sexy_," thought Jess. "_I hope you don't do that to all your boyfriends_."

April was thankful for her hooded armor; she knew she was blushing madly. "_I've never_…" she thought, but then she realized that the others could hear her thoughts and she stopped. No need to get into her amazing lack of a love life right now.

As she and the other three continued to fight against the remaining mudmen, a new sound began to emerge: cheering. April couldn't afford to look – there were still well over a dozen nasty monsters trying to slice her apart – but her HUD told her that the sound came from the officers. As the fight wore on, April was aware that the men and women behind the riot shields were inching closer. April was reminded of Zordon's last admonition before they had left for Cedar Grove: "Under no circumstances," he had said, "may you divulge your identity to another. Do this, and your power will leave you. I am sorry, but as you come to see the visions of the previous Rangers, you will understand why this must be so." Jess had objected – after all, why should they risk their lives and take no credit for it – but Zordon was adamant. April, for one, was more than happy to keep this a secret. Her parents would absolutely _flip_ if they found out.

"_April look out_!"

Something collided with the side of April's head and knocked her to the ground. Her armor had absorbed most of the blow, but she was still disoriented, and she cursed herself for losing focus. A mudman stepped over her and made to swing his clubbed arm into her face, but a beam of white light blasted through his abdomen and sliced him clean in half. Mud spurted all over April's armor. The White Ranger ran into view and helped her to her feet. Over Will's shoulder, April saw Jack and Jess grab the last mudman by the arms and pull. Both arms ripped clean off and turned to dust. Jack swept the mudman's feet, and Jess stomped on his head.

The officers burst into a massive round of applause.

"Thanks," April said to Will.

"You're welcome," he answered. "I'm not even out of breath. These powers are truly amazing."

April nodded and smiled before realizing that Will couldn't see the latter.

"We need to move," Jack said as he and Jess joined them. "These were only the beginning."

"Yeah," agreed Will. "And we can't afford questions from the police right now."

Jess' red eyes drifted to the building tops high above them. "Up?" she asked.

"Up," Will agreed, and the four of them leapt back into the night.


	18. Episode 4 Ch 2 Where to Next?

Episode 4, Chapter 2 - Will

"_Zordon, come in_."

Will and the others bounded across the rooftops at a blistering speed, taking at least eight or ten feet with a single step. They knew that the group they had just destroyed was only a small fraction of what remained within the city, and Will was sure that it was only a matter of time before the rest of Rita's forces would learn about what happened. They needed to get away from where they had just fought on the off-chance that Rita found out about them and sent reinforcements.

They also had to figure out what in the hell they were going to do next.

"_Yes White Ranger_," answered Zordon. "_What is it_?"

"_We want to head for the electrical plant so that we can restore power to the city. Sound good?"_

"_Liberating the electrical plant is admirable, but Rita is dampening Cedar Grove's electricity through other means_."

"_How can we stop her, then_?"

"_A pair of Rita's lieutenants have hijacked the city's rail system and are using it to carry a machine that emits electricity-draining pulses. This machine is able to transfer tremendous amounts of power to their train while simultaneously absorbing the power from the surrounding area. Their train can move very quickly because of this. They will be difficult to catch_."

The Rangers stopped on the roof of an apartment block. "_We have to try, Zordon_," said Will. "_Without power, the hospitals can't help the injured_."

"_A commendable sentiment, White Ranger, but destroying the machine that Squat and Baboo are using will remove what little amount of stealth you currently have. In restoring power to Cedar Grove, you will also alert Rita to your presence. She will take more aggressive actions to try to lure you to her_."

"Their names are Squat and Baboo?" Jess laughed. "You've got to be kidding me."

"_You have seen what the element of surprise can do for you_," said Zordon. "_Do not underestimate this. There are many others who must be saved before you can restore power to the city. Do that first, however, and many more lives may be lost_."

Will felt his blood boiling. "So we're screwed if we do, screwed if we don't," he said. He swore loudly. "You expect us to just live with this decision, Zordon? Ignore the thousands who are injured just so that we can take out a few more mudmen?"

"_Nothing is ever as simple as 'good' and 'evil'. As the leader of the Power Rangers, this will not be the last tough decision you ever make. I cannot force you to ignore Squat and Baboo's train_." Jess giggled again at the names. "_But I know you will make the right decision_."

Will clenched his fist. People could die if the hospitals didn't get power soon. But on the other hand, Cedar Grove's firemen and police officers won't be able to search the streets for other injured people until the Rangers clear the city. If they restored power now, Zordon guaranteed that Rita would up her ante, but if they continued to lay low…

Will sighed. He had heard the others' thoughts as he and Zordon had talked, so he knew where they stood. He would go with their decision.

"Alright," thought Will, "we'll leave the train for now."

"Squat and Baboo," giggled Jess. Jack smacked her upside the back of her head.

"_Where should we go, Zordon_?"

"_The officers you saved earlier are regrouping near the police headquarters to the east. They intend to take back the headquarters building, but they will not be able to do it without your help. That is where you should start_."

"_We're on it_."

The four continued along the rooftops. Cedar Grove had very particular zoning laws, so most of the buildings were the same height, which made travel much faster. They had hardly gone three blocks, though, when they heard screaming.

"_There_," April pointed. Fires still raged all through town, but this one was different. An entire apartment building was going up in what was undoubtedly the largest fire Will had ever seen. Eight stories, and only a handful of windows didn't have smoke billowing from them. On the ground floor, the main entranceway was blocked by over a dozen mudmen.

"I'm getting a strange reading from the building," said Jack.

Will had noticed it, too, but the science that the HUD was spitting out was a little beyond him. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I can't say for sure. The fire's… hotter than it should be."

"There's still a lot of people inside," April reported. Will's HUD confirmed it. "We should help them."

Will was about to reply that, no, they couldn't, and that they needed to get to the police station before the CGPD did something stupid, but then he remembered his own pleas to Zordon just moments earlier. This was why they were Power Rangers. If they couldn't help those people still trapped in the building, then who could?

"Absolutely," said Will. "Let's go."


	19. Episode 4 Ch 3 Through Fire and Flames

Episode 4, Chapter 3 - Jess

The four Rangers dropped into a back alley and approached the road that separated them from the apartment block. Had any passers-by bothered to look, they may have noticed four pairs of glowing eyes staring back at them from the darkness. But of course, the only ones who might have seen them were the dozen mudmen at the building's door, and they weren't watching the road or the alleyway that lay beyond it.

"What are they doing?" asked Jess.

"_Making sure no one gets out alive_," thought Will.

"Well fuck them."

Jack chuckled. "_In a sense, isn't that what we're about to do_?"

Jess didn't answer. Above the roar of the flames she could still hear screams from the apartments. The thought that people could be trapped inside – that to leave the building would only mean death at the hands of these mudfuckers – pissed her off. She hated bullies, always had. She'd never tell Jack, but more than a few of the assholes who had made fun of him in high school ended up in the hospital thanks to her. He never defended himself, so she had to step up and do it for him. And now Rita's lackeys thought that they could just walk right into town and do whatever they wanted? Jess was ready to show them just how wrong they were.

"_The strange readings from inside the building still worrys me_," thought Will. "_Know what it is yet, Green_?"

Jack shook his head. "_No, sorry. It's just… hotter… somewhere inside the building, but what is so unusual to me is that it's almost as though the point that's hottest keeps moving_."

Jess hardly heard them. Something about the flames in the upper-storey windows caught her eye. There was something… _inviting_ about them. Jess tried to shake the idea out of her head. Inviting? Come on. Fire isn't inviting. It kills. But the flames kept dancing, and a small voice inside her head said, "Go. Leap into the fire." The others were discussing what to do about the mudmen in the street and how to save the people inside the raging inferno. Jess let them talk. The dancing flames were so…

A sudden vision exploded into Jess' mind. A man in the same red hood that she now wore ran through a forest that was completely ablaze. The man stepped straight through the fire, but it did not hurt him. A familiar creature in golden armor fell from a tree in front of the man and forced him to stop. Goldar grimaced with that jack-o-lantern smile and pointed his sword tip. A jet of flame burst forth and enveloped the man, but he did not move. He didn't even flinch. The fire licked his body and played around his face, but he didn't burn. Goldar lowered his sword and scowled. The Red Ranger turned and reached into a fire playing around the base of the nearest tree. He pulled, and out of the fire itself came a sword of silver with a red hilt, wreathed in flame just like Goldar's own jagged blade. The fire from which he had pulled faded, and as the Red Ranger leapt headlong at Goldar, so, too, did Jess' vision.

She gasped, floored by what she had just seen, and processed what the vision was telling her. She hadn't heard a word of what Will and the others were planning. She didn't need to. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt like she knew what she had to do. She looked back up at the flames eight stories up, and the meaning behind the vision hit her.

Without a word, she charged into the street and leapt clear over the mudmen, eight stories into the air, and headfirst through a veil of smoke that poured from a top-storey window. She rolled and came to her feet amid a room of fire and ash.

"_Jess_!" Jack's voice shouted in her mind. "_Jess! Are you alright? What are you doing_!"

Jess glanced around. Everything, from the sofa to the table and chairs nearby, was in flames.

And they didn't harm her.

"_I am immune to fire_," she thought. She heard Jack sigh in relief – only someone as dorky as Jack would actually _think_ a sigh – and she realized that her thought had projected to the others.

"_Next time how about warning us first, huh_?" thought Will. "_How'd you know_?"

"_Hey_," Jess shot back, "_you had your little moment of inspiration when you figured out how to transform. I just had mine, okay_?"

"_I'm coming with you_," said Jack.

"_No_!" The last thing Jess needed was a cooked brother. "_No, don't. I'm the only one who can_." Then it hit her what the lizard-looking thing was on her power coin and her chest. It was a salamander, an animal that, in legends, could live in fire. She almost laughed. "_I'm a fucking salamander_," she thought, and again too late realized that the others heard her.

"_… Are you sure you're okay_?" thought Jack.

"_Yes god dammit I'm fine, now go kick some ass. I got things covered in here_."

Jess turned and shoulder-charged straight through the door that led out to the floor's main hallway. The wooden door crunched and splintered all around her, but all she felt was the strength her suit lent her. Had she tried to do this just as plain old Jess, she'd probably have broken a bone. She knew. It'd happened before.

Being a Power Ranger was awesome.

The heads up display that played across her vision scanned the floor for vital signs. She noticed the "strange readings" that Jack and Will kept blabbering about were coming from about three stories down, but her first order of business was to make sure that as many people got out of here alive as possible. A fresh scream surfaced on her HUD. It pointed Jess to a room four doors down and on the right. She was at the door in less than a second.

Her suit told her that there was a fire on the other side of the door that averaged about a thousand degrees Celsius. Jess didn't know how hot that was, but fire gave her no fear. She broke through the door like it was paper, and a burst of flames enveloped her.

All she felt was a light tickle.

This room was much like the one she had jumped into, but the window on the far side was closed, and the smoke had built up to a level that would have blinded anyone not wearing a Ranger suit. Her HUD scanned through the dark cloud and saw two bodies on the floor. One of them wasn't alive. Jess made for the other and saw that it was a little girl. She screamed when she saw Jess.

"Don't worry," said Jess. "I'm here to help." The girl just screamed again. "Dammit, listen to me! Just shut up and let me help you!" Jess grabbed a chair and flung it at the window, which exploded and showered glass all over the pavement far below. Jess bent down to the girl, who was now backing away on her hands and butt and crying hysterically. "Look kid," said Jess. "Do you want to get out of here or not?"

"Mommy…" said the girl.

"Mommy's gone," said Jess. She'd forgotten how much she hated kids. They were so stupid. "Come on. We can get you out of here."

"No! Not without Mommy!"

Jess was through with bargaining. She grabbed the kid, who took to her favorite pastime of screaming again, and leapt out the window with the little brat flung over her shoulder. They landed with a thud, and Jess set the girl down. She told the girl to get clear of the building and that more adults would be with her soon to look after her. As Jess turned and leapt back up to the window, she heard the girl sobbing for her mommy again.

"Damn kids," Jess muttered. For half a moment, she thought about tossing the mother's body out to the street so the kid would have her precious mommy back, but not even Jess was that heartless. It sounded like something Rita might do. Jess recalled what Zordon had said about the old Power Rangers turning on each other. As she dove headlong through the window she'd just jumped out of a moment earlier, she felt her heart soften, even if only for a moment. They wouldn't do as the old Rangers had done. They weren't Rita Repulsa.

"_Guys_," Jess contacted the others. "_There's a little girl in the streets. Someone needs to look after her_."

"_You got someone out_?" asked Will. He sounded surprised. Jess would have to remember to hit him later for not having any faith in her. "_Good job. We'll_—"

"_Red_!" Jack cut in. "_Watch it! That hot spot is moving up the building! It's coming straight for you_!"

At being called "Red", Jess remembered another part of her vision of the old Ranger. She entered the floor's hallway, reached into the flames around her, and felt her grip land on something. She pulled, and out of the flames came the same sword she had seen before. "Sweet," she whispered to herself. The sword shone from the fire in the hallway and the flames dancing on the blade itself.

Jess looked down at the floor. Sure enough, her HUD showed that the hot spot was moving up the building. She felt the floor shake and heard a rumble below. A quick scan of the floor she was on told her that no one else was alive up here. She held her sword before her and didn't retreat when she heard a feral roar from the floor below.

"_Red_?" asked Will. He must have heard it, too.

Jess was about to answer, but at that moment something exploded through the floor at the other end of the hallway and sent debris flying. Jess ducked under a chunk of wood that stuck into the wall behind her. A solid wall of smoke bellowed out from the new hole in the floor, but as Jess watched, something stepped through the smoke and into the hallway.

Staring at her with the same fire-eyes that Rita's forces seemed to favor was a living hellhound, a massive beast taller than Jess, steam bellowing from its nostrils, its blade-like fangs bared, smoke streaming from each paw, its entire tail ablaze like some whip of pure fire. There was an intelligence in its eyes that would have sent a lesser man running, but not Jess.

She brandished her sword and yelled at the beast. "Come on!" she taunted. "Fucking mutt! Try taking on someone who'll fight back!" She'd send this beast back to the hell it came from, and she'd do it for the damned spoiled brat outside who hadn't even thanked Jess for saving her. The hellhound growled and lowered the front of its body to the ground. Jess and Jack had had a dog once. She knew that movement well. The hellhound was preparing to pounce.

"_Guys_," she thought, "_I found the hot spot_."


	20. Episode 4 Ch 4 Have Faith

Episode 4, Chapter 4 – Jack

Jack was worried for his sister, but then, so what else was new. She _would_ leap headfirst into a burning building.

"_We can still take these guys_," thought Will after Jess told them that she hadn't yet burned to death. "_You ready_?"

"_Yes_," thought Jack and April together.

Pistols out. Aimed. Fired. Jack had always been quite the crack shot in the archery club. These pistols were pretty different than a bow, but where the human's skills fell away, the Power picked up the slack. Two headshots apiece for the three Rangers before the mudmen even knew what hit them. In the time it took the final eight to turn around, beams of green, white, and blue had ripped them apart, and they crumbled to dust on the apartment's doorstep. Their scattered remains played over the small pile of human bodies near the front door before disappearing entirely.

"_Good work_," thought Will as they dashed to the door.

"This suit's a good shot," said Jack, which made Will laugh.

They stopped in front of the door. "_Open it_," urged April.

Jack didn't have to be told twice. He yanked on the door's handles and was met with a barrage of screams and, unexpectedly, three arm-blades that swiped wildly through his view. He leapt back in surprise, but the damage had already been done. He felt a blade tear along his right forearm. The mudman responsible kicked Jack clear of the doorway. Jack tumbled through the air and crashed shoulder-first into the side of a car on the other side of the road. Pain ripped through the right side of his body, but he pushed it aside.

He got to his feet just in time to see Will punch the mudman's head clean off its shoulders. April had already taken out the other two. Mudman-dust scattered from where she had stood a moment before, but she had already ran into the building to see to the people trapped there. Still wincing, Jack ran back across the road.

The glow of firelight from the street cast Jack's shadow down the length of the hall, which thankfully contained no fire and little smoke. Seven humans, some with burns on their arms and legs and most dressed in their PJs, huddled against the walls.

"What's going on?" asked one of the men. "You… aren't one of _them_."

"The city is under attack," Will answered. "All of Cedar Grove is without power, and much of it is burned. Find a building that has not been burned and hide there. I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do."

One by one the humans stood and looked past the Rangers to the street. The man who had spoken first was also the first to step out of the building. He moved slowly, and he nursed a badly-burned arm.

"Th-thank you," he stuttered as he led the people out of the building. "Who are you?"

"We're the Power Rangers," said Will, though that only seemed to confuse the poor man.

"_Guys_." It was Jess. "_There's a little girl in the streets. Someone needs to look after her_."

Their HUDs indicated the location Jess meant. April sprinted around the building to take care of the girl. Jack scanned the building to see where Jess was.

"_You got someone out_?" Will asked her. Jack tried not to laugh at the surprise in Will's voice. Jack knew Jess' heart. He knew there'd be more people saved by his twin sister before the night's end. _Good job. We'll_—"

"_Red_!" Jack cut in. His scan had picked up something unusual. "_Watch it! That hot spot is moving up the building! It's coming straight for you_!"

Jess didn't respond immediately, but Jack knew that she never did what you wanted her to. She worked on her terms, and she'd respond when she damn well pleased.

April came around the corner of the building with a young girl in her arms. The girl was sobbing. "_I think her mother's dead_," April thought. The pain in April's "voice" surprised Jack.

"Emma!" cried one of the apartment dwellers. The woman ran to April and lifted the girl out of her hands. She held the girl close and whispered things in her ear before addressing the Rangers. "Emma's my niece," the woman explained. "Her family lived on the top floor. We thought they'd…"

"Her mother's dead," said Will. "I'm very sorry."

Tears welled in the woman's eyes. "My sister… Thank you for saving Emma. Our family is in your debt." The woman and the others fled down the street and disappeared around a corner. Just as Jack, Will and April turned back to the apartment building, the upper floors rocked as if there was an earthquake.

"_Red_?" asked Will.

Someone cried out from a window on the seventh storey and then leapt. Jack and April laid down their meshwork of light under the man's fall. Even after he had landed safely, his eyes were wide and sweat poured down his face. "Monster!" he shouted. He babbled incoherently as he pulled himself off the meshwork and ran away in a random direction.

"Monster?" asked Will.

"_Guys_," thought Jess. "_I found the hot spot_."

"_What is it_?" Will asked. An ear-splitting scream more or less answered that for him.

"We need to get up there and help," said April.

"We can't take the fire like she can," said Will. "Until we extinguish the fire there's no way we can get to her."

The building shook again. Something crashed against a wall on the top floor. Jess graced their thoughts with a creative flurry of swear-words.

"I think I have an idea," said April. She ran to a fire hydrant nearby and gave it a hard kick with her heel. Its top exploded off and sent a steady geyser into the air. April grabbed what was left of the hydrant and bent it so that the water blasted towards the apartment building. When her hand touched the water, she froze for a moment, much in the same way as Jack had seen the others do when they experienced one of the Powers' visions. Suddenly April gasped and thrust her arms forward. To Jack's surprise, the water flying through the air responded by turning in the direction April intended.

"Woah!" cried Will.

April aimed the water at one window after another until it looked like the bottom storey was under control. Just as Will and Jack were about to charge in to begin helping others trapped inside the building, part of the upper-storey wall exploded, and something tumbled through the air and crashed into the pavement. That something leapt back to her feet, her red eyes blazing and – Jack did a double-take – a flaming sword clenched tight in her hand. Jess leapt straight back through the hole she'd just been thrown out of, and she didn't answer when Jack tried to ask her if she needed help.

"They're going to bring the building down if they keep that up," said Will. He beckoned towards the building. "Come on! We gotta hurry!"

Jack wasn't about to argue.

While April stayed on water duty, Will and Jack sprinted into the apartment and began scanning for life. The upper stories shook from Jess' fight with the monster. Whatever she was fighting roared, making the building shake again. Jack knew that Will was right – they had precious few moments to find survivors before the building collapsed.

The two took off down different hallways, but while April's water had helped, the scene still looked grim. Jack's scans picked up far more dead bodies than living. Some burned, some cut down by mudmen, it hardly mattered. The Rangers hadn't gotten there in time to save them all.

Jack turned and charged through a door to find a woman unconscious from the smoke. He scooped her into his arms, dove through the window, and set her down across the street, near where April still orchestrated the water to do as she pleased. She nodded at Jack as he set the woman down.

"_I'll keep an eye on whoever you find_," she thought.

"_Thanks_."

Back inside, things became a blur of hallways, doors, terrified people, charred bodies with their clothes burned into their flesh. Jack had no idea how long he and Will worked, or how long Jess fought the beast on the upper stories. It was like his whole life had become flames, screams, shaking walls. Find a person. Pick them up. Run them out of the building. Run back in. Repeat. He lost track of how many times his suit caught on fire.

Jack set an old man down on the pavement near April just as Will ran out of the building with two small boys slung over either shoulder. April's water jet now reached to the top storey, where Jess and the monster still did battle. They hadn't heard from her in some time, but a quick scan showed that the Red Ranger still stood strong.

"I think this is the last of them," Will said as he set the children down. Jack looked at the crowd that he and Will had gathered from the building. So many faces reflected in the fire.

A massive quake, this one far larger than any of the previous rumblings caused by Jess' fight. "_Careful_!" April thought to Jess. Jack looked up just in time to see the building's upper two stories collapse in a great cloud of dust.

"Red!" the three Rangers on the ground yelled. No response. "Red!" Jack shouted again. "_Jess! Come on, answer me!_"

There was the sound of metal straining, but for now, at least, the building did not fall.

"_Rangers_," Zordon's voice cut in. "_There are several reinforcements headed your way. I believe the people you have just liberated were to be slaves. A battalion of Rita's mudmen are almost at your location, but be wary: they bring with them an armored ship. You must get the humans out of there. I am sending you coordinates for an area of town that should be safe_."

Will swore. "_Red's down, Zordon_," he thought. "_What should we do about her_?"

"_Have faith_."


	21. Episode 4 Ch 5 Late for the Party

Episode 4, Chapter 5 – Ewan

The Yellow Ranger tore across the rooftops of Cedar Grove with unbelievable speed. Zordon had teleported him to the edge of downtown, but apparently any closer to his fellow Rangers would have risked alerting Rita to their presence. Ewan figured Zordon was just punishing him for not choosing Rangerhood from the start.

As Ewan bounced from one rooftop to another, he felt an overwhelming urge to open his arms wide like a pair of wings, silly as it sounded. He fought against it for the first few miles, but a poorly-calculated jump from one building to another that was now just a pile of rubble sent him into a panic, and he opened his arms wide.

An extra webbing of cloth unfolded from the bottom of his arms and connected to his thighs, turning his armor into a wingsuit. He glided to the streets without making a sound, celebrated his good fortune and good looks with a silent fist pump, and leapt back to the rooftops.

Zordon had given him the other Rangers' location on his heads-up display and even provided him with some picture-in-picture action. In the top-right of his vision he could see some of what Jess saw. From the looks of it, she was fighting a huge dog on fire… with a sword.

"_Where the fuck did she get a sword_?" he had to wonder.

He leapt from a building and saw a much taller one a short distance away. It had a huge flag pole sticking out sideways from its roof. Letting the suit take over – since he had no idea what the hell he was doing – he reached for his belt, grabbed a thin wire, slung it at the flagpole, hooked its other end to his belt, held his arms open, and braced himself for dear life as the wire retracted and pulled him with incredible speed towards the flag pole. Just before he would have slammed chest-first into metal, the wire unslung itself and retreated to his belt. He flew over the flagpole and high into the sky, using his wingsuit to steer himself towards his friends. When he dipped too low, he repeated the process with the wire on whatever high building he could find.

It may not have been faster than running and jumping, but _damn_ it felt cool to glide over the city. The one benefit to the fires below Ewan were the thermals he could catch. The hot air that arose from each fire propelled him even higher. He didn't even come close to touching the ground for miles.

Something broke the transmission of Jess' view. Ewan hadn't been watching it, but he had to hope that the worst hadn't happened.

"_Yellow Ranger_," said Zordon. "_You must hurry. The others need your help_."

"_Almost there, Z-man_."

"Oh for the love of all things robotic and good," Alpha's voice said inside Ewan's hood. "If the _Spirit_ Power hadn't chosen you I'd kill you myself."

"Suck it up, Terminator," Ewan grinned. "You're stuck with me."

"Not if you die."

Ewan touched down on the edge of a tall building overlooking the Rangers' location. An entire apartment block had collapsed on itself. Jess' marker put her location right in the middle of the rubble, which, even as Ewan watched, began to smolder. From his left, coming towards the building, was a massive contingent of mudmen, and behind them, some sort of hovering tank with several cargo cars linked behind it like a train. Ewan's vision zoomed in and scanned the cars. There were humans inside.

"Slavers," he realized. His mother might be in there.

"Hurry!" someone shouted. He looked down to his right and found the rest of his friends. Though he had never seen the others in their Ranger uniforms, somehow he knew which one was which. April somehow still looking sexy in blue, Jack and Will looking as intimidating as Ewan did in their green and white, respectively. The three of them were leading a large group of battered and burned civilians away from the slavers, but they were slow. Too many people were injured. The slavers would catch up to them soon, and with so many civilians around, Ewan wasn't so sure that he and his friends would prevail.

So he thought of the only thing that seemed logical. He decided to attack the slavers by himself.

He turned left and ran along the rooftops overlooking the street where the slavers were coming, and as he did he noticed for the first time that his footfalls made no sound at all. "_Light as the wind_," he thought. Then it hit him that, instead of attacking them head-on as he'd so recklessly planned, perhaps some stealthy harassment might be more effective. He ran until he was behind the column of mudmen, and then he dropped into the street.

Not a single mudman looked behind them. It was only a matter of walking right up to the nearest one and giving his head a quick twist on its neck. The mudman dropped to the ground and disintegrated into ash. Ewan repeated the process on the next, and the next, until he came across two who stood side-by-side. He grabbed either side of each one's head and rammed the two together, but this caused more noise than he had intended. The nearest mudmen spun to face him, their arms morphing into blades and clubs as they inched closer.

Ewan waved merrily. "Bye guys!" he said. He reached into his belt, withdrew a small pellet, and threw it to the ground. A yellow cloud of smoke enveloped him and the mudmen, and he took the opportunity to leap high into the air and glide to safety to the nearest rooftop.

The entire line of slavers stopped. He heard orders being called out in a strange tongue that he didn't understand. He peeked over the edge of the building and saw the mudmen fanning out from the tank-train in a wide circle. He'd stopped the caravan, but now it'd be next to impossible for him to get to the vehicles and set the humans inside free. He wasn't sure what he'd planned on happening, but this wasn't it. Ewan ducked back down behind the edge of the roof and cursed his carelessness.

A massive boom jolted Ewan to his feet. The tank was firing its gun at the buildings around it to try to lure him out. It fired again, and a building on the other side of the street came down in a cloud of dust. It'd tear down the whole block in no time if Ewan didn't do something.

He leaned over the edge and yelled, "Hey!" The tank's gun whirled faster than Ewan could have imagined and fired a shot straight at him. Ewan arched backward and felt the projectile miss him by mere inches. He stood back up and leapt away from the building before the tank brought it down. He opened his wings and sailed straight over the mudmen and their tank, which fired a wild shot up at him that missed by a wide margin. Ewan landed on a building on the other side of the road, no closer to figuring out what in the hell to do but at least wasting more time to let his friends escape.

Then something down the street let out a sound unlike anything Ewan had heard before, as if some demon made of pure metal had just screamed at the top of its lungs. The commotion from the mudmen stopped. Even the tank stopped firing. Everyone looked down the street, towards the apartment block where Jess was supposedly buried.

A jet of flame exploded out of the apartment rubble, arched through the air, and landed in the street before taking off towards the slavers at an impressive rate. As it got closer, Ewan saw that it was the flaming dog he had seen through Jess' eyes, and Jess sat on top of him, her sword buried to its hilt in the hound's back. It screamed and tried to buck her off, but she held fast. As it ran up the road, it leapt back-first into the side of a building to crush Jess between itself and the building's side, but she would not let go. She twisted the sword, and the hellhound turned in the same direction and ran straight towards the tank, which began to fire. Jess twisted the hellhound clear of the first shot, and then the second and third, until the hound smashed headlong into the tank's gun and sent Jess flying. As she spun in midair and began firing pistol blasts at the mudmen around her, Ewan leapt from his perch and did the same. Beams of red and yellow crossed in the air and the air grew thick with mudmen-dust. When Jess landed atop one of the cargo cars, Ewan landed right in front of her.

"Fuck!" she cried.

"Miss me?" Ewan grinned.

"Hmph. 'Bout time you got your pussy-ass out here. Nice outfit."

"Likewise. The skirt almost makes you look like a woman."

Jess grabbed Ewan by the shoulders and threw him headlong off the car. He twisted like the expert diver he was and smashed both feet into the chest of the mudman Jess was aiming for. Ewan backflipped off the mudman and stuck a perfect landing.

"Next time warn me!" Ewan shouted. Jess just laughed and jumped into a crowd of mudmen on the other side of the caravan. Ewan hardly had time to think before he was mobbed himself.

He was hardly aware of the fight. A mix of Will's tae kwon do lessons and the innate knowledge in the Ranger armor drove Ewan's actions. He dropped into the splits just as five mudmen attacked from all sides. He punched hard and broke the knees of two mudmen on either side of him, then he grabbed two ankles and yanked both counter-clockwise so that he spun like a helicopter. The bodies of the two mudmen he had grabbed crashed into the two mudmen whose knees were broken. The momentum from the spin let Ewan roll onto his back and up into a handstand. While upsidedown, he kicked the fifth mudman hard in the face and then shoved off the ground to land feet-first on the shoulders of another nearby. He twisted, and the mudman's head twisted with him. He fell through the mudman's disappearing body and sighed. Seven more mudmen sprinted towards him.

Ewan saw the tank slowly turn its gun towards him. The hellhound's ass was still just visible poking out from the end of the gun. Ewan was afraid he knew what the tank was about to try. Sure enough, the tank aimed. Fired.

Just as it shot, Ewan leapt straight into the air. The hellhound-missile rocketed right through where he'd stood a moment earlier and bounced along the pavement before crashing through the glass of a coffee shop some ways behind the caravan.

Ewan glided down and landed atop the gun. "Fuck you!" he shouted. He fired his pistol straight down and through the tank's hull. Sparks flew from the tank, and the gun began to spin wildly on its axis. Ewan could hear shouting from inside the tank, so he shot again and again, each time destroying more wiring located within. The tank's gun bucked under him; it had fired a shot of its own. The surprise gave one of the tank's pilots time to reach up and knock Ewan clear of the tank. He hit the ground, and the tank – along with the cars attached to it – tore down the street.

"Shit!" Ewan shouted. "Jess, we gotta move!"

He ran down the street after the hovering train, but it was clearly faster than he was. Flustered, he leapt to the buildingtops and tracked the train with his HUD. It snaked through the streets ahead. It looked like the turns were slowing it down enough for him to possibly catch up. He raced along the buildings, leaping over streets, past buildings aflame, totally unaware of another, smaller something that also chased the train through the road. Finally, the train's wild ride brought it under Ewan's path. He dove from the building, but just before he landed atop the caravan, the train took a new sudden turn, and Ewan smashed into its side.

He barely held on to a thin rail along the train's wall. The train had turned down an alleyway, and the pilot must have seen Ewan, for it steered the vehicle to the right to scrape its sides – and thus, Ewan – along the buildings. Ewan pulled with all his might and sent himself flying onto the top of the train just as the metal screeched along the building. Ewan stayed low on the roof to avoid being seen. It must have worked, since the train steered back into the middle of the alleyway and slowed down a little bit.

As Ewan crept along the top of the line of linked slave cars, the caravan left the alleyway and turned left, straight towards where Ewan knew Will and the others were just a few blocks down. If he didn't do something soon, the other Rangers would have to try to fight a tank away from a group of unarmed civilians.

The tank's gun swiveled and fired a shot to Ewan's left. To his surprise, Jess was back atop the hellhound, still steering the beast with her sword in its back. The pilot had seen her, but the damage from Ewan's pistol had made the gun unstable. For every shot that fired, it looked like two or three others failed.

"_I got this_," Ewan thought to Jess.

"_Doesn't look like it to me_," Jess shot back. The tank fired again, and again Jess and the hellhound dodged. "_Hurry it up; I can't distract the bastard forever_."

Ewan hadn't even realized that that was what she was doing. Feeling some gratitude – but certainly not willing to tell her that – Ewan ran along the cars until, at last, he stood atop the final one. He looked down. There was some kind of hitch that connected this car to the back of the tank. If he could somehow cut it…

He pulled out his pistol and fired at the link. The shot bounced off. "_I need your sword!_" he thought frantically. They were almost on top of Will and the others.

"_It's on fire, you idiot! You can't touch it!_"

"_Then get your ass over here and cut it!_"

Jess climbed to her feet on top of the hellhound, still clinging to the sword lodged in its back. "_Jump to the tank as soon as it fires_," she thought.

"_Why?_"

"_Just do it, god dammit!_"

The tank fired. Ewan and Jess leapt into the air at the same time. Jess had slid her sword out the hellhound's back as she leapt. The tank's shot blasted the hound into a million fiery pieces. Ewan could see through the holes in the tank's top as he fell. The pilot had no idea he was coming. Jess landed on the first car and sliced the link clean off. She and the cars slowly began to fall away behind the tank.

Ewan landed inside the cockpit. There were two pilots. He punched through the chest of one, but the other grabbed him and threw him against the panels. He arm twisted – it was still inside the other's chest, after all – and his vision burst with light and pain. His muscles convulsed from the electricity coursing from the tank through his body. The mudman pulled him away from the console and slammed his head into it again. He felt like his skull was about to burst. Dimly, he kicked at the mudman, whose grip loosened.

Ewan pulled himself away from the tank's controls and wrestled with the mudman until he had the bastard pressed up against the panel. Ewan noticed the tank's monitor showing that the civilians were hardly a block ahead of them.

"Hold on!" Ewan told the mudman. He threw the mudman as hard as he could against the side of the tank. The control panel exploded around him. Ewan felt the tank spin sideways and begin to roll. He and the mudman bounced from one side of the tank like they were in a washing machine. Round and round they and the tank went, sparks and metal and dust and limbs flying in all directions. The lights inside the tank went out. Then the rolling stopped. There was a screeching of metal scrapping along concrete, and then silence.


	22. Episode 5 Ch 1 The Threat is Real

Episode 5, Chapter 1 – April

April, Will and Jack stood between the survivors from the apartment fire and the huge rolling tank bouncing towards them. They braced themselves, ready to stop this thing from rolling right over the civilians, but the tank skidded to a halt on its side hardly a foot in front of the Rangers. They could see bodies through a hole that had been blasted into the tank's hull. Will's pistol was in his hand as he approached. He leaned through the hole and made a sound like a gasp.

"_I think I'm only wearing a Speedo under this suit_," someone said both in thought and voice. He sounded dazed, but it was clearly Ewan, the diver friend of the others. April breathed a sigh of relief. Will pulled Ewan out of the tank and clapped him on the back.

"Good to see you in uniform," said Will.

"Yeah, well, you know. Someone had to get out here and save your asses."

"_I present to you the Yellow Ranger_," Zordon cut in. "_Holder of spirit. You will need his tenacity if you hope for any chance against Rita's forces. Ewan is strong and swift like the wind, and his soul is unbreakable. Without him, the Rangers will lose sight of what it means to be human and free_."

"You've been waiting for a while to say that, haven't you?" asked Ewan.

"… _Maybe_."

"You take down that tank all by yourself?" Will asked.

"_No_." The Rangers looked past the tank, where a line of cargo containers slowly drifted towards them. Jess stood atop the first car, her fiery sword still in hand. She hopped down and gently slowed the cars until they were stopped. "_Get these open._"

The crowd of apartment-dwellers murmured amongst themselves as April and Jack ran to help Jess open the containers. One by one Jess sliced the locking mechanism and April and Jack pulled the doors open. Each container held the same scene: women and children, battered and bruised almost beyond recognition, cowering away from the doorways when they opened. A few of the braver apartment refugees joined the Rangers in coaxing the slaves out of the containers. In all, Jack said he counted seventy-three people locked away.

"Bring them here," said the man who had been the first to trust the Rangers and leave the burning apartment. "I'm a paramedic. I don't have any supplies, but I might be able to do something."

"Thank you," said Will. "You've been very helpful. What's your name?"

"Jason Scott," the man said.

"_Zordon_," thought Will, "_is there anything we can do to help these people?_"

"_You have already done them a great service in saving their lives_."

"_They're banged up pretty bad. You should see the burns on this man's arm._"

Zordon paused for a moment. "_Each of your suits contains a built-in supply of healing salve for injuries such as those already sustained by the Green, Yellow and Red Rangers. As a safety precaution I provided you with an extra supply of healing salve, White Ranger, but I do not recommend that you give it to these people. They are alive, and keeping the salve for yourself may ultimately be the deciding factor between life and death for you or one of your teammates._"

Will didn't even hesitate. He found the right pouch on his belt and handed it to Jason. The other Rangers supported the White Ranger's action through their silence.

"Here, Mr. Scott," said Will. "This should help with cuts and burns."

"Thank you all," said Jason. "I don't know who you guys are or where you came from, but we're rooting for you." He turned and began organizing the civilians to accommodate for the freed slaves.

"_Why did you do that?_" April asked.

"_That man is a leader_," Will thought. "_He'll take care of all these people when we leave, which needs to be soon. We can't let the police try to take back headquarters without us. If I get hurt and we could have used that extra salve, then I'll take my scar knowing that one of these people doesn't have to live with one. This is the reality we signed up for when we became Rangers._"

April was surprised at his willingness to sacrifice himself, but in her heart she knew that Will was right, and that she absolutely felt the same way.

One by one the freed slaves joined with the apartment crowd, and Jason the paramedic saw to each of them in turn. Even the smallest amount of salve from Will's bag had a clear effect; eyes brightened, cuts and bruises disappeared, people gained a fresh bounce in their step. Jason's focus and determination were incredible. Though his left arm was still burned and blistering, he saw to everyone else first. If there was no salve left, he'd be left with that arm. He was prepared to make the same sacrifice that Will was.

April dipped a finger into the pouch and slid the salve over Jason's arm. He looked at her, surprised. "You need some, too," she said.

Jason opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it. "Thank you, miss," he said quietly. April nodded and stood to let him continue his work.

As each slave shuffled past the overturned tank, April couldn't help but notice that Ewan, now leaning on Will's shoulder, stared intensely at each and every one as they passed. When Jess and Jack returned behind the last slave, Ewan swore and sat down on the tank's gun.

"_What's wrong?_" asked Will.

"Nothing."

"We just saved over seventy people, just the five of us, and you're moping?" said Jess.

"Shut it," Ewan growled.

"I thought Zordon sent you home," said Jess. "Why didn't you just stay there?"

"I…" Ewan trailed off. "Nothing. I just knew that you four wouldn't be able to do this without me."

"Bullshit," Will said. He said it like it was a common thing for him to say to Ewan. April had to remember that these four were friends outside of Rangerhood and had been for some time. She had to remember that she was the new one, that her family had hardly been in Cedar Grove for a week. "I know you," continued Will. "Something happened, didn't it?" Ewan looked away. "Dude," said Will, "what happened? Is the university under attack or something?"

"Zordon didn't send me to the dorm," Ewan spat. "He sent me to my mom's, the bastard." He stood up and groaned. Rolling around inside a tank must have hurt. His cloth-and-leather armor had small tears and grease stains all over it. April guessed that the suit's healing effects could only work so quickly. She realized that she was now the only Ranger to have avoided injuries so far. She hoped it would stay that way. "You wanna know what happened?" Ewan asked. "Nothing. Nothing at all. You know why? Because no one was there. From Elm all the way to fucking Circle Street. No one was there. They've been taken, man. Everyone."

April's heart skipped a beat. "Elm to Circle?" she repeated. "Your mom lives in West Riverside?"

"She did, until the fucking slavers took her."

In an instant, everything April knew was turned upside-down. Ewan's mother lived in West Riverside.

And so did April's.

Her parents had stayed at home when she went to the lake; no one really cared to watch her dive, and her family wasn't big on fireworks. They were just going to stay in and watch some Fourth-of-July movies. Her younger twin sisters had been trying to convince their parents to let them go to some party, but when April left for the lake her mother had still been saying "no". No doubt the twins had snuck out, but had they left before the slavers had reached the neighborhood?

"Oh God," she whispered. Now she understood why Ewan had been looking at each of the slaves: he had been looking for his mother. She scanned the crowd for any sign of her mother or Olivia or Cassie.

"What is it?" asked Will.

April debated telling them. They didn't know her. A small voice in her head told her that no one would care. But… these were her teammates. They trusted each other with their lives now. If she couldn't tell them, whom could she tell?

She took a deep , shaky breath. "My family lives there, too."

Silence followed. The other Rangers looked between her and Ewan. "_Jess_," thought Jack, "_you think our parents…_"

"_Slavers wouldn't want them_," Jess answered, but she didn't sound convinced.

No one said anything. What was there to say? In the back of her mind April had known that her family could be in danger and that she was out here to protect them, but now it was real. Now her family, and Ewan's family, and Jack and Jess' family, and maybe even Will's were gone, ripped from their homes to be made servants of a mad ten-thousand-year-old witch. The threat was real. They weren't just fighting for ideals any longer.

Ewan was the first to break the silence. April was beginning to understand that the man loved to hear himself talk. "Jess… Where the fuck did you get a sword?"

The sounds of a man and a woman yelling turned their attention. The five Rangers drew their pistols as one and aimed at the far street corner… where a pair of police officers appeared in a dead sprint. Both were men, but as they got closer April realized that the skinnier of the two had an impressively high-pitched scream.

"Run!" the larger policeman bellowed. "Save yourselves!"

"Hold it!" Will dashed forward, his arm up in a "stop" gesture. "What's wrong?"

The two officers froze. Their faces would almost be comical if the situation hadn't been so dire.

"Bulky," said the thinner one, "weren't the monsters _behind_ us?"

"Quiet, Skull," said the other. "Make no sudden movements. They can't see us if we don't move."

Jess groaned.

"_Hey,_" thought Ewan. "_I know them_: _Lieutenants Bulkmeier and Skullovitch. They're campus police._"

"_Campus police?_" thought Jess. "_Yeah. Explains where you've met them before._" She holstered her pistol and flung her sword at the ground, where it disappeared in a bright little _poof_ of fire. Officer Skullovitch squealed and jumped into Officer Bulkmeier's arms.

Ewan holstered his pistol. "_What can I say? I live fast and loose. These guys are morons, in case you couldn't tell._"

"Officers," Will tried again. "We're here to help you. What are you running from?"

"_We are close to police headquarters_," April realized. "_They probably came from there. Zordon, what's the latest at the station?_"

"_It appears as though Goldar has arrived outside the building_," Zordon answered. "_Your assault on the slave train, while admirable, has caused a stir in Rita's forces. I believe you will no longer have the element of stealth on your side. They know resistance is out there, but I do not believe they yet know that there are Rangers._"

"Bulk, Skull," said Jason. April hadn't even noticed him walk up next to her. "These people are friends. They're fighting against the monsters."

"Careful Skull," said Officer Bulkmeier. "They've brainwashed the geek."

"_We don't have time for this_," thought Jess. "_Can we just tie them up and go help the real police?_"

Jason seemed to understand the Rangers' situation. "Don't worry guys," he smiled. "I go way back with these two. I'll take care of this. You go save Cedar Grove."


	23. Episode 5 Ch 2 Outside

Episode 5, Chapter 2 – Jack

The situation looked worse than the Rangers had feared. Just at the moment when they reached the edge of the roof overlooking police headquarters, Goldar, with his fire-fur and golden armor and massive flaming sword, took a swing and lopped off the heads of two captive officers at the same time. Jack's heads up display analyzed the swing. What it told him was that Goldar was insanely powerful.

Behind Goldar, a small brigade of mudmen stood before the doors. Each carried an automatic rifle, and they looked like they knew how to use them. Headquarters itself was remarkably intact except for a tank-shaped hole in its façade and a pillar of smoke coming from somewhere towards its rear.

"_Damn_," thought Will, "_I can't scan the building._"

"_We're being jammed_," thought Jack. Zordon had said that the whole affair with the tank-train had told Rita that there was resistance in the city, so Jack wasn't surprised to see that their scans were blocked. Who knew what else might be in store for them now?

"_It'd be suicide to attack Goldar when all those mudmen have machine guns_," thought April.

Will nodded. "_I agree. We have to figure out some way to reclaim the building and its munitions while minimizing civilian casualties._"

"We should split up," offered Ewan. The others shushed him immediately.

Will tapped the side of his head. "_We need to communicate by thought_."

Jess snickered. "_If you can._"

"_Ha ha_," thought Ewan. "_But seriously. I know a back way into the station. I'll lead a group inside while the other group stays out here and makes sure nothing bad happens._"

"_Like the police trying an attack on the building?_" asked Jess.

"_Exactly. And I know they're dumb enough to try. I mean, come on, did you see Bulkmeier and Skullovitch? If those two are on the force, imagine what the other guys are like._"

"_Why do you know a back way into the station?_" asked April.

The other Rangers stared at her. "_In time_," thought Will, "_you'll learn_."

"_You could say that our dear Yellow Ranger knows the inside of the police station better than some of the officers_," thought Jack. He and Will knew that Ewan wasn't a bad kid, but it was true that he had been on the wrong end of the law a few too many times. Ewan had a tendency of falling in with the wrong crowd. Will and Jack were the only ones who ever bailed him out of jail.

"_All in the past_," thought Ewan. "_So, who's with me?_"

No one raised their hands. "_White?_" asked April. "_What do you think?_"

"_I think he's our best bet,_" Will thought. "_Without being able to scan the building for other ways in, it'd be foolish of us not to rely on his knowledge. I'll stay out here. Blue and Red, you go with Yellow. There may be fires inside, and you two are most-equipped to deal with that._"

"_Right,_" April nodded.

"_Do I have to?_" asked Jess.

"_Yes,_" thought Will. There was no arguing with his tone. "_Green and I will keep an eye on Goldar. No telling what he'll do._"

It was decided. Ewan crouched low and led the girls across the rooftops and away from the police station. Silently the three leapt straight over the street and onto the roofs on the other side. They dropped down into an alleyway near the station and disappeared.

"_I'm glad he came back,_" thought Will.

"_Me too,_" thought Jack.

"_I wonder why Zordon sent him to his mother's instead of the dorms._"

"_Probably because Zordon knew his mother had been taken._"

Will glanced sideways at Jack. "_You think so?_"

"_I trust that, in some ways, Zordon knows us better than we know ourselves. You heard how pissed Ewan was when he told us about his mom. I'd always thought he hated her._"

"_Me too. I hope Master is alright, and your parents._"

Sometimes, Jack forgot that Will's real parents were dead, and that he had been adopted by his tae kwon do master seven years ago. Jack always found it strange when Will referred to his adoptive father as "Master". "_Yeah_," Jack thought.

"_I'm worried about Blue._"

"_Because her family got taken, too?_"

Will nodded. "_Yeah. She sounded so upset._"

"_She'll be alright. Zordon himself said she's 'able to adapt to any situation'. She'll recover and fight with the same determination that Yellow is showing, no matter what happens to her family._"

"_You say that so casually. You do recall that your parents have probably been captured too, right?_"

"_Of course. I'm the holder of strength, remember? It's my job to stand strong, be the rock this team needs to stay focused no matter what comes my way._"

Will shook his head. "_I don't know how you do it. I'm terrified._"

Jack glanced at the monster in the street. Goldar paced back and forth in front of the police station, barking taunts at the small gathering of officers down the street and occasionally sending a jet of flame their way. The scar that Will had given Goldar's cheek at the lake burned a brilliant orange, almost as though fire coursed through the demon's veins. Jack's nose twinged at the sight of him. Though Jack's body had healed, it still had not forgotten the beating it had taken at Goldar's hands.

"_Me too_," thought Jack.


	24. Episode 5 Ch 3 Deception

Episode 5, Chapter 3 – Ewan

"_Aaaaaand… here!_"

"_It's a grate, jackass._"

"_It's our ticket into the station, Tiny._"

"_You brought us all the way back here for a God damned air duct?_"

"_It's a vent, you red-headed dyke! I—_"

"Raaagh!"

"_Guys, guys! Cool it! We can't afford to make noise._"

"_Shh. Quiet. You hear something?_"

"_Besides your gay voice?_"

"_You're one to talk, lesbo._"

"_Guys, arguing like this is getting us nowhere. Yellow, get the grate open and get us in there._"

Ewan and Jess were practically hood-to-hood by now. The light of Jess' red eyes hurt Ewan's, but he wasn't one to back down first. Unfortunately, neither was Jess, so the two of them remained standing chest-to-chest, ready to beat the hell out of each other, until April pushed them apart and repeated her plea. Ewan snapped out of his macho man persona, but not before adjusting his crotch to make some kind of point that not even he knew. Jess mimicked his move just as he bent down in front of her to pull the grate off the wall. He fought to resist the urge to groan; after playing "washing machine" with the tank, his whole body was sore. Pulling the grate off the wall reminded him that his arm had twisted during that whole affair as well.

Behind the metal grate was a small opening just large enough for the three Rangers to crawl through. Ewan was the first inside. "_This leads to the back of the cafeteria stove,_" he explained. "_Trust me, you don't wanna be in here around lunchtime._"

"_And how did we find out about this little surprise?_" asked Jess.

"_Friends in high places._"

"'_I bet they were high._"

"_God damnit Jess_."

"_We need to call each other by our Ranger colors just in case Rita's forces figure out some way to hear us,_" April reminded them.

"_Can I call her 'Period Red' then?_"

"_No,_" thought both girls at once.

"_I find it hard to believe that any girl has ever had sex with you,_" thought Jess.

Ewan forced himself to not kick the red-hooded Ranger behind him. "_Funny, I was thinking the same about you._"

"_Why couldn't White have been the fire-resistant Ranger?_" April lamented.

Normally, the small ventilation duct the Rangers were crawling through was pitch-black, but Ewan quickly discovered that his hood had night-vision capabilities. Within seconds he was pushing aside the grate in the wall of the station's kitchen.

"_Great,_" thought Jess as she stood and looked around. "_Now what?_"

"_We gotta clear the building of mudmen,_" thought Ewan. Hadn't she been paying attention earlier?

"_And we need to keep the guns out of the hands of Rita's forces,_" April reminded them.

"_Right. Of course._" Ewan decided to ignore the fact that he had forgotten about that little bit. He'd mostly been paying attention. Sometimes, when Will was speaking, it was hard to stay focused.

Without power, the kitchen, the cafeteria beyond it, and the hallways beyond _that_ were all in nearly total darkness. The Rangers' HUDs were still on the fritz thanks to whatever Rita was doing to them. Without a map, the girls were forced to rely on Ewan's memory of the station, which was just fine with him.

When they came upon the first patrol of mudmen they discovered that the monsters had raided the CGPD's stash of night-vision goggles and flashlights. The Rangers hid in an alcove until the mudmen passed, and then they made quick work of them. The goggles and flashlights clanged as their owners turned to dust, which forced the Rangers to scoop up the equipment and run for cover before other patrols came to see what had made the sound.

Ewan didn't want to admit that he had no idea where the barracks were. He had never been there himself, and he had never discovered where the police kept most of their weapons. He led them aimlessly through the station for some time before they came upon a small stash of equipment they'd hid after wiping out a patrol.

"_God damnit Yellow_," Jess swore. "_We trusted you, and now you're lost!_"

"_I am not,_" Ewan shot back. "_I just… wanted to make sure these guys were dead._"

"_Bullshit,_" thought Jess and April together. So much for bluffing.

"_Okay fine, I don't know where they keep the guns. But hey! We haven't been spotted yet, right?_"

Lights appeared at the end of the hallway. A patrol was coming round the corner and would be on them in seconds. The Rangers turned and ran in the other direction, but when they hit a fork in the hallway, Jess turned left, and Ewan and April continued straight.

"_Red!_" called April. "_Wrong way!_"

"_My HUD's picking up extra heat this way. I think the smoke we saw outside is coming from somewhere nearby._"

Ewan and April turned a corner and peeked back down the hallway. The patrol was about to pass the turn-off where Jess had gone. Ewan and April wouldn't be able to get to her without going through these guys first, but all of them were carrying huge assault rifles.

"_Go check it out then, if it makes you feel better about yourself,_" thought Ewan. Maybe with her somewhere else, he'd be able to concentrate on figuring out where to go.

"_No,_" thought April, "_we need to stick together!_"

Ewan knew April was right, but Jess was such a pain in the ass. Then, he had a brilliant idea.

"_You're right,_" he thought. "_As soon as this patrol passes we'll move toward Red._"

"_Thank you,_" thought April.

"_On my mark._" The patrol was passing by their hallway now. "_Three, two, one…_"

Both Rangers stood and ran around the corner, but Ewan slowed down until he was well behind April. He stopped entirely and turned back around. She never heard him, and she didn't look back. Now he'd have time to search the station in peace.

"_Yellow?_" The question came well after Ewan had already returned to the hallway where they'd been a few seconds earlier. He was sure that this was where he needed to be. "_Yellow?_" April asked again. "_Where are you?_"

"_I, uh, found something back here,_" he lied. "_I'll catch up with you guys!_"

"_Did you ditch me on purpose?_" asked April.

"_Of course he did,_" thought Jess. "_He's a selfish prick._"

"_I'll be back in no time,_" promised Ewan. He turned and continued down the hallway. Something about it called to him. He knew that his silent steps would keep him safe against any patrols, and even if they didn't, then hey, he just took down a fucking tank all on his own! What were a few morons made of dust going to do to him?

He stopped when he rounded the next corner. With each breath, he felt an inexplicable pull towards a door at the end of the hall, as though someone were tugging on his very soul. "_I'll… catch up…_" His feet began to move entirely on their own.

Every inch was like a dream in and of itself. The few colors his hood's vision picked up began to fade to darkness as he approached the door. He felt warm; there was something wholly inviting about this place, like a nap on a cool afternoon. He swore he heard music playing from some far-off place. He floated through the hallway until he was at the door. The knob glowed as metal under candlelight, though all else around had dissolved to black. Ewan turned the knob and pulled.

The demon Goldar leered at him from the doorway. "So you like Rita's enchantments?" he laughed. Ewan's senses were dulled by Rita's magic. He couldn't even react as Goldar pulled back and bashed his face with the butt of his sword.


	25. Episode 5 Ch 4 Shadow

Episode 5, Chapter 4 – April

April could tell that Jess was still seething about Ewan's little trick. April wasn't thrilled herself, but she felt like she was beginning to understand Ewan. He was a man's man; his pride had probably been injured when he had realized that he didn't know the police station as well as he had thought, so now he needed to go off and explore on his own. Ewan reminded April of her father, and she had had plenty of experience dealing with _him_.

But Jess was letting it get the better of her. She wasn't controlling her thoughts, and they were filled with an almost constant stream of insults – rather creative ones, April had to admit – geared towards the Yellow Ranger. When April tried to ask Jess to stop, the insults turned on her.

April couldn't see the extra heat that Jess claimed was nearby; she could only assume that Jess' fire-resistant suit was just more adept at picking up something like that than hers was. Jess led her slowly from hallway to hallway, sometimes cutting through interrogation rooms or abandoned work areas filled with broken computers. Destruction was everywhere: wherever April looked, furniture was sliced, equipment bashed in, bodies lay in bloody pools. Something crunched under her foot. April bent down and found dozens of bullet casings littering the floor. Someone had put up a fight. Nearby, she saw a dead officer still holding the remains of a gun that was cleaved in half.

"_They had no chance,_" April thought. Her suit told her that these officers had been dead for over an hour, so the Rangers would not have arrived in time even if they hadn't gone to the apartment fire first, but the loss of life still weighed heavily on her heart. These were the defenders of the city, and they had laid down their lives in the hope of giving others the freedom to live.

Jess didn't respond. April was beginning to understand the other Rangers, but this girl remained something of a mystery to her.

Finally, they entered a back hallway and found signs on the walls indicating where the barracks and munitions could be found. When April tried to contact Ewan, though, all she got was silence.

"_The jamming's probably blocking the signal from going that far,_" thought Jess. "_Thank God._"

"_I hope you're right. If something happened to him—_"

"_Then he got what he deserved, going off on his own like that._"

They approached a corner and peeked around its edge. There, down the hall, was a pair of double-doors held closed with iron bars. Flickering light and smoke from the crack between the doors told April that there was a fire on the other side. The door rattled from something hitting it; someone was trapped inside with the fire.

Standing before the doors, however, were eight mudmen with guns and night-vision goggles all trained on the doors to make sure no one escaped.

"_Shall we?_" thought Jess.

"_How about we formulate a plan first,_" offered April. She noticed a small fire that had broken out in the hallway between them and the mudmen.

Jess hesitated, then thought better of it. "_Fine. Thoughts?_"

April shared them. Seconds later, the mudmen were surprised to see a flaming sword rip through the hallway and impale itself in one of the men's chests. The other mudmen reeled; the flames from the sword blinded their night-vision goggles and gave the two lady Rangers the time they needed to sprint down the hall. Jess slid baseball-style between the crowd of mudmen, grabbed her sword from the dust, and began hacking away. April leapt above her and split-kicked two in the head before grabbing a third's head between her legs. She flung herself back and down so that she ended in a handstand and sent the mudman crashing into another behind her.

One mudman, still blind from the fire of Jess' sword, began to fire his rifle wildly through the hallway. April felt a bullet rip through her thigh. She cried out and fell out of her handstand. Jess slashed the gunner and the last two mudmen before kneeling beside the Blue Ranger.

"April!" she shouted. "Hey! You alright?"

"_No,_" April thought without meaning to send the thought Jess' way. She didn't want her teammate to know just how much pain she was in, but it felt like someone had taken a white-hot poker and impaled her leg with it. Her entire thigh burned, and when she tried to move, it was like someone twisted that poker through her muscles and pushed it against her bone. "Aaahh!" she screamed. She fought to get herself under control. "G… get the doors open. I'll be… fine." Jess didn't move right away. April might have been touched had she not been in so much pain. If her suit had any healing powers, it sure was taking its sweet time with them. "Go!"

Through tears and vision blurred from such intense pain, April watched Jess bash the door open. Smoke poured into the hallway, and so, too, did staggering humans. April had to drag herself out of the way after almost being stepped on, but in the end Jess was successful. The barracks beyond the door were almost completely in flames. The officers wouldn't have lasted much longer before suffocating.

Jess reentered the hallway with an unconscious officer in her arms. "I don't know who you are," said another officer, "but thank you." Jess grunted at him.

"Now what?" asked a second officer.

"Know any close exits?" Jess asked them. "Front's not an option."

"Parking lot," one suggested. The others muttered amongst themselves: some were for it, others against. One still argued for going out the front door. April had to endure a string of swearwords from Jess' mind that only stopped when the other officers told the guy to shut up.

"Anything other than the parking lot?" asked Jess.

No one could think of another way out.

"Alright then. Blue, you good?"

April fought to control her breathing. Just like diving, she told herself. You can do this. Calm yourself. You're alright. You'll survive. You'll get out of here, and you'll save your family and everything's going to be okay.

With help from the officers, April dragged herself to her feet. One offered his shoulder for her to lean on. "Captain Stone, at your service, ma'am," said the officer.

April pulled her pistol from her holster and held on to Captain Stone with her other hand. "Let's go," she said shakily.

The officers led the way. Jess handed her unconscious officer to one of the larger men and withdrew her pistol. She kept to the front of the group, and April and Captain Stone fell towards the back. Whenever they found remains of patrols taken down by the Rangers, April and Jess pointed the officers to the night-vision goggles and guns that they had hidden, and the group began to pick up the pace. Twice they came across fresh patrols, but Jess made quick work of them. The officers' bullets went straight through the mudmen, and while they did slow the monsters down slightly, they did little else.

Jess stopped the group at a corner. No one said a word; many of the officers stopped breathing so they wouldn't make a sound. Jess peeked a head around the corner before she motioned for the group to follow.

"_I thought I heard something,_" she thought. "_Keep an eye out._"

April was still in too much pain for her senses to be working properly, and her HUD was still whacked out from all the jamming interference. She glanced behind her and swore that a shadow flickered on the edge of her vision, but when she focused on the spot, she saw nothing.

The group crept through the hallway, guns aimed in all directions, night-vision goggles glinting in the rare light coming through the windows. And every time April looked behind her, a shadow danced away from her sight.

"Here," an officer whispered. The group stopped at a pair of closed double-doors. "Parking lot. Can't open this door from the outside without a key. Usually have guards, but…"

Jess nodded. "Let's go, then."

The moment she and the officer touched the door handles, a high-pitched scream blasted April's senses. She turned just in time to see something faintly humanoid bounce from wall to wall down the hallway through which they had just come. It flung something at the group. April shoved Captain Stone away and took the full force of the object in her arm. It ricocheted off her and ripped clean through a water fountain hardly three feet away. Water gushed out of the wall and into the air. When it touched April, a vision of the past shoved its way through her pain.

A woman in blue robes stood in a pond at the base of a waterfall. She was gorgeous, one of the most beautiful women April had ever seen. She smiled warmly as she bent and touched the water like it was an old friend. She let it play through her fingers and around her feet. She looked like she _belonged_ in the water.

There was a rustling sound from nearby. The woman's face changed instantly; upon seeing the monster leap through the underbrush, the woman in blue yelled, "_Harmony_!" and became the blue Power Ranger. The monster stopped several feet away from her.

"Y… you," the Blue Ranger said, shocked. The being standing before her was the Yellow Ranger, but something was off about her. Her suit bore extra armor that reflected no light. Her eyes burned with an intense yellow, but there was something else behind them, almost as though the Ranger under the yellow hood wasn't the only one in there.

The Yellow Ranger said nothing. A breeze ruffled the brush around them. The Yellow Ranger appeared to reach into wind, and a strange curved bow wisped into her hands.

"Why are you doing this?" the Blue Ranger asked. "What has happened to our team? What has happened to _you_?"

The Yellow Ranger lifted the bow and aimed it at the Blue Ranger. As she tugged on the string, the breeze encircled her and whirled itself into an arrow of dust and air. The Blue Ranger held her hand out over the water in which she stood, and a gleaming trident of silver and sapphire leapt from the lake's surface.

"Long live Rita Repulsa," the Yellow Ranger rasped. Her voice was dry and almost lost in the wind, but something about it sent chills down April's spine.

Pain exploded through April's mind again, almost making her forget about her vision entirely. Chaos reigned around her: a shadow-person stood just feet away, and behind April, Jess was yelling at the officers to get the hell out of there. The shadow-person stood motionless, but April could tell it was watching her every move.

"_Red_," she thought. Speaking was too hard right now. "_Get the officers out of here. I got this._"

"Like hell you do!"

"_Red_," April repeated. "_They'll need you outside. Do it._"

"No!"

April spun and manipulated the water around her so that it blasted Jess in the chest and sent her flying out into the parking lot. April then adjusted the water jet so that it blasted the doors shut, then she turned and faced the Shadow.

April found her voice, even if she couldn't bring herself to her feet quite yet. "Another of Rita's lackeys?" she asked it.

"You are not fit to speak her name," the monster said. April was shocked; it had a woman's voice, and a high-pitched one at that.

April balanced herself on her good foot and her good arm and pushed herself up into the air. She landed on her good foot; years of diving and gymnastics helped her stay there. "Why are you here?" April asked. She needed to stall so she could figure out what this new vision was telling her.

The Shadow chuckled and took a step forward. Light from some windows behind April fell on the monster's legs. There were only two, and the thing stood like a human, but the outline of its upper-body looked strange, like it had an extra appendage or two.

"To hunt," said the Shadow. "And you have robbed me of prey."

April's mind was maxed out between keeping herself on her feet, figuring out her vision, ignoring the searing pain, and keeping the Shadow busy. Something slammed against the door behind her. It was probably Jess. April ignored it.

"Surely you're here for more than just killing," said April.

"Others may be, perhaps." The Shadow hissed a little when she said her S's, much like a snake. "But I follow orders, and my orders are to consume all who oppose Rita."

April adjusted her footing until water from the busted fountain sprayed all over her. Then it clicked. She thrust her hand into the stream of water and caught on something. She pulled, and out of the water came a trident with sapphire-encrusted tips. She leaned on the weapon like a crutch and pointed its end at the Shadow.

"_I_ oppose Rita," she said.

"Then you oppose Scorpina," said the Shadow. She stepped fully into the light, and April could now see that her name was aptly given. Scorpina would almost be pretty, were it not for the stingers coiled around her neck and the pointed tail behind her. She wore an extremely form-fitting armor of gold and black, and her smile was as wicked and sharp as the barbs on her stingers.

Scorpina took another step forward. April held her ground. Scorpina's tail lashed out from behind her and jabbed at April's bad arm, but she deflected the blow with her trident. Scorpina attacked again and again with her tail, her stingers, her hands, but April deflected them all and even sent back a few jabs of her own.

Unfortunately, she could feel her strength draining. The pain was just too much, and somewhere in her mind she would have sworn that the building itself was sucking the life out of her.

A stinger nicked her shoulder, and the pain from Scorpina's venom was unlike anything April had felt. Darkness enveloped her sight, and before she even knew what had happened, she was on her back, her trident laying just beyond her grasp and Scorpina standing over her.

"Poor little girl," she cooed. "Thought she'd be brave. Thought she could stop the big bad monster." April could no longer speak. She tried to move an arm, but the venom prevented it. She was paralyzed. "Poor little Ranger," Scorpina laughed. She stepped on April's thigh. April would have given anything to be able to cry out and provide some sort of release for the pain she was feeling, but even her vocal cords were frozen now. She began to wish that she would just pass out so that she didn't have to endure the pain any longer, but her body had other plans.

Scorpina reached into the busted water fountain and pulled out the thing that had hit April's arm. It was a curved sword, made in the shape of a scorpion's tail. Scorpina bent over the downed Ranger and slid its tip across the emblem on April's chest. "Poor Little Ranger thought she could fight alone," Scorpina sang. "Poor Little Ranger thought she could take Scorpina by herself." The pain was unimaginable, yet all April could do was sit and allow the blade to slide across her chest. It ripped through armor and skin like they were paper. "But the Ranger was wrong. Scorpina will kill her. Scorpina will bring her to Rita. Poor Little Ranger is all alone."

"Not alone." Something smashed against Scorpina's chest and blew her out of April's sight. Someone in a hooded Ranger suit knelt over April and spoke to her, but April could barely hear anymore. The need to sleep was overpowering. She closed her eyes, and the pain ebbed away into dreams of darkness and sorrow.


	26. Episode 5 Ch 5 In a Jam

Episode 5, Chapter 5 – Will

Will swore quietly to himself; things were not going at all how he had planned. After they had lost contact with the other Rangers and Goldar had retreated back into the police station, Will and Jack had decided that one of them should go around to the back of the building to make sure Goldar wasn't trying anything funny. Not being able to hear from the three Rangers was bad enough, but now Will couldn't get through to Jack, either. And when he tried Zordon, he got nothing. Rita obviously knew that the Power Rangers were here, and already she was proving that she was more powerful than anyone had anticipated.

The only good thing was that the small group of police officers hadn't taken advantage of Goldar's disappearing… yet. Will's suit could just pick up their conversations far down the street. Even as he listened, it was clear that support for attack was growing. If the Rangers didn't take back the station soon, the police were going to throw every last man into the fire.

"What to do, what to do," Will muttered. Everything about the past few hours – had it really only been _hours_? – still rattled Will's mind when he thought about it too much. Today was the Fourth of July; there was supposed to be fireworks and burgers and Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be An American". He was supposed to be stuck in traffic right now coming back from the lake. Yet here he was.

"…_an't… do th_…"

Will snapped back to reality. Someone was speaking in his head, but it sounded like the jammer still kept it from completely going through. The speaker continued to talk, but Will couldn't catch anything more.

Then the front doors of the police station opened.

Goldar and a strange woman in similar gold armor strode out into the streets. They held chains in their hands that dusted the ground with darkness as they rattled, and at the other end of those chains were Ewan, Jess, and April. Pure darkness bound their arms and legs so that they stumbled and fell down the stairs that led to the sidewalk. Goldar and his new friend cackled at the sight before turning to address the police officers down the street.

"Hey you!" called Goldar with his hoarse smoker's yell. "Puny humans! Look here! Three of the only people strong enough to oppose us have been captured! Still wanna take back your sorry little base? Ehhhhhhh heh heh heh heh heh!"

"_Guys_," thought Will, "_it's me. Are you okay?_"

"_Get us out of here_," thought Ewan. None of his usual bravado. That was odd. "_Please_."

Definitely odd. Ewan must be pretty rattled to say "please".

"_Goldar and Scorpina are going to kill us if you don't do something_," thought April. "_You better be quick about it! Get out here and help us!_"

Goldar and Scorpina slung the three Rangers down the street and towards the gathering of officers. The Rangers landed hard and rolled. Ewan cried out and began to mutter something about a broken arm. Even though they were still a block away, several officers stepped back.

"_Where is Green?_" Will asked.

"_We don't know_," thought Ewan. "_God, my arm_…"

"_Just get us out of here!_" thought April.

Will prepared to jump from the building. If he landed between the monsters and the Rangers, he might be able to knock Goldar and – what was her name? – Scorpina away to give him some time to break the chains. He gripped the edge of the building and marked his jump, but a vision of white cut his leap short.

Light slowly melted into greens and browns. Will stood atop a mountain summit in the heat of afternoon, only he knew that he was not Will but the old White Ranger, a large dark man built lean, like a lion. He stood without moving, his gaze surveying endless tracks of land before him and his mane of wild black hair fluttering in the winds. The slightest of sounds behind him gave away a visitor.

"It is unlike you to venture so far on foot," said the White Ranger without looking. "Why not just teleport?"

Rita smiled. There was no denying her beauty; a face like hers could start wars, and perhaps, in fact, had. "I wanted to see what all the fuss was about," she said, coming to a stop at the White Ranger's arm. "You always talk about how the journey is more important than the destination."

"And?"

Rita shrugged. "Once was enough."

"Was that your zord I heard?"

"I never said I hoofed it the _entire_ way up here. But enough of that. Now that I'm here, what's say you and I ditch this silly surveying and, oh I don't know…" she ran a hand down his arm and held on to his wrist ever so lightly, "go somewhere Zordon can't find us, do something he wouldn't approve of." Her other hand started to reach for his waist, but he slapped it away.

"No, Rita."

"Awww come on!" She threw her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes, yet even then she didn't come up to his chin. He refused to look down at her. "We've been Rangers for how long now?"

"Many solar cycles."

"More than any other human! And for what? Nothing's happening! Nothing is wrong, and at this rate, _nothing_ will be wrong for perhaps another hundred solar cycles. So let's get out of here. Let's go do something fun for a little while. No one will miss us, and if something does go wrong, Zordon can just whisk us back to base and tell us what to do like he always does."

"And what did you have in mind, little Black Ranger?" He still didn't look down at her, but Rita seemed to be willing to take what attention she could get.

She hopped backwards, yelled, "_Ambition_!", and became a Ranger hooded in black. "Watch this," she said. She bent down and placed her hands on her own shadow. When she lifted her hands up, they were holding onto a black staff made of ebony and a fine mist of darkness that fell off the handle and colored the grass below it a single shade darker.

"Your weapon has changed," said the White Ranger.

He crossed his arms, but Rita took her staff in hand and twisted it in circles until something began to shimmer before her. "There are things we can do," Rita said as she twirled the staff, "that Zordon never told us about. He's holding back from us, and I think it's our duty as Rangers to investigate our own powers and push them to their limits."

She stopped spinning. Before her stood a perfect replica of her Ranger self. The White Ranger unfolded his arms and slowly walked around the apparition, taking in its every detail. "Impressive," he said at last. Rita breathed a sigh of relief and threw her staff into the air with a whoop. "But Zordon must have a reason for not telling us of these things. This ghost Ranger is a deception. It is a lie. What kind of defenders would we be if we had to resort to falsities to protect? We would be no better than those who would seek to destroy."

Rita caught her staff, but even under the hood it was obvious that she hadn't expected his answer. She waved an arm, and the mirror image disappeared. She dropped her staff into her shadow, pressed a button on her wrist, and teleported back to her zord without another word.

The mountain summit lurched downward and became a dark rooftop. Will found himself gripping the roof's edge so tightly that he now held two small chunks of roof in his hands.

"_Hey_," April thought, "_are you there? Goldar's not kidding around. He'll kill us if you don't get out here, damnit_."

"_Don't worry_," thought Will quickly. "_I'll be out there in a second. Oh, hey David, Jane, Susan, look… if I don't make it out of this, I want you to tell my mom that Charlie loves her very much, alright?_"

"_Okay Charlie_," thought Ewan. "_You got it._" That was all the answer Will needed.

He scanned Goldar and Scorpina and found a strange anomaly on Goldar's right hip, but when he tried to look closer all he saw was black. Rita's work. It was a slim chance, but it was still a chance. If that thing on Goldar's hip was what Will thought it was…

Goldar slowly drew his sword from his side and laughed again. Scorpina took up Goldar's chains and kicked each of the Rangers into kneeling positions. Goldar paced behind them. "What a pathetic group of Rangers!" he bellowed. "The night has only just begun, and already three of you belong to Rita! All it'll take is one swing. Those little hoodies of yours won't be enough to stop this…" He touched the flat of the blade against Ewan's shoulder. Ewan cringed away and pleaded again in Will's mind to save them. Will withdrew his pistol. He'd only get one shot. He just had to wait until Goldar was in position.

Scorpina and Goldar looked around the street as if expecting something. "_Please Charlie_," begged Ewan, "_I don't want to die!_"

"_Don't worry_," thought Will, "_I'm coming_." He aimed his pistol.

"Goodbye, Yellow Ranger," chuckled Goldar. He swung straight down and buried his sword deep in Ewan's abdomen by way of his shoulder. The two halves of Ewan fell apart from each other, and the kneeling body crumpled forward. Jess and April began to cry hysterically. No one noticed the small beam of light that arched from a nearby rooftop after Goldar's swing.

"_You asshole!_" April screamed in Will's ear. "_You fucking asshole! You just let him kill David!_"

"_Yes_," thought Will. "_But while Goldar was busy pulling his sword out of the fake Ranger, I shot the jamming machine tied to his belt. Goodbye, Rita._"


	27. Episode 6 Ch 1 Missing the Tournament

Episode 6, Chapter 1 – Eight Years Ago

The boy burst through the hospital doors with a young man hot on his tail. The boy shouted over his shoulder for the man to leave. The man continued to follow. The boy started to run, but the man was in top shape and easily kept up with him. Together they dodged around nurses and doctors, past beds on wheels and endless nurse stations. The boy didn't know where he was going, but he moved with purpose. He had to find the room where they were.

He heard their names and room number called over an intercom at a nurse station. One brightly-lit hallway after another, and before he knew it he stood outside the operating room. He heard yelling people and buzzing machines; things didn't sound good. He had only stood there for a moment when he heard one of the machines let out a high-pitched wail. Flatline. More people yelling. The defribulator charged, fired, charged, fired again, yet the whine of the machine continued.

The boy tried to enter the operating room but was immediately grabbed by nurses and placed outside. They asked the man who they were, and he said he was the boy's martial arts master. They had been at a tournament when they heard the news, he said, and they rushed here. The boy yelled for his family, but the nurse only closed the door. The boy kicked at the door only once before his master dragged him away. He told the boy that everything would be alright, that these were the best doctors in Cedar Grove. He led the boy in calming meditations and ignored the low string of insults the boy continued to throw at the nurses and doctors behind the closed door.

The noises within the OR slowly died down. The boy sat on his knees, sobbing his way through meditations, while his master stood guard over him. One by one someone turned off the machines. The operating room's door opened. Several nurses slouched out into the halls, followed by two doctors. No one looked at the boy, but he stood when he saw the doctors. He asked them what happened. The doctors walked on without looking back. One glance into the room, at the three bodies covered in sheets, told the boy everything.

"Why didn't you save them!" Will screamed at the retreating doctors. "Why the hell couldn't you save them!"


	28. Episode 6 Ch 2 Saving Her

Episode 6, Chapter 2 – Jack

Three Rangers crashed to the floor of the Command Center. Will was back to his feet and over to the healing alcove in the time it took Jack to come to his senses. The twins pulled each other up and joined Will. April lay on a bed with black gashes in her bare skin and some kind of fang or something poking out of her shoulder. Jack noticed for the first time that April now wore a soft cloth gi the color of the ocean. He looked down and was surprised to find that he, too, wore a light gi, only his was emerald. Will and Jess were now in uniforms of white and ruby red, respectively.

"What happened?" Will asked. His voice was dry; Jack hadn't heard him so bent out of shape since his family had died.

"Some fucker named Scorpina," said Jess.

"Zordon, can you save her? And where's Ewan?"

"Move, flesh sacks."

The humans stepped aside as Alpha shuffled to the bed and held a small machine over April's chest.

Jess turned away from April's bed and glared at the cloudy tank at the head of the Center. "What the fuck, Zordon? Scorpina ripped right through her! We might as well have been wearing bikinis for all the help your 'armor' did!"

"So what happened?" Will asked again. "And where's Ewan?"

Jess told them about their adventure in the police station: how Ewan tricked them and went off on his own, how April had been shot, how they'd rescued the officers trapped in the barracks, and, finally, how Scorpina had ambushed them and almost killed April. Will never moved from April's bed while Jess spoke. Jack, not wanting to mess with Will while he was in such a state, hopped on the Command Center console and began to search for any sign of Ewan.

"I am sorry, Rangers," boomed Zordon. "I had intended for these first encounters to be a trial for the five of you. Rita's power has greatly surpassed my expectations. I never anticipated that she could have possibly grown so strong while trapped in her ice prison."

"Well good for fucking you," spat Jess. "You and you—" she pointed at Zordon's tank and Will, "totally suck at leading this team."

Will ignored her. "What do you mean by 'trial', Zordon? You knew we'd find that apartment building, didn't you?"

"Yes, and your actions there proved your Rangerhood beyond a shadow of a doubt."

Jess snorted. "Whoopty doo. I almost died in your little 'trial'. Some wisdom."

"The courage you showed in leaping into a building aflame confirmed in my mind that the Power chose you well, Jessica. All of you have continued to show the same strength of character that you showed back on the cliffs above the lake, when you first fought Goldar."

"Zordon," said Will, "before we came back here, I saw a vision of something. Of Rita, back… you know, with the first Rangers. She said that the Power Rangers can do things that you never told them about."

"Well, yeah," said Jess. "Zordon didn't tell us jack shit."

"You know I hate that phrase," muttered Jack.

"Over the millennia I have learned much of what Rita knew," said Zordon, "but my sight of her was blocked while she was imprisoned on Mars. The information I have learned came from the memories of the old Rangers. I have not known until now what she has learned in her captivity."

"So, you know more now," said Jess. "Do something about it."

"I have already instructed Alpha to begin designing stronger armor for you. However, April will take some time to recover from Scorpina's assault, and without her or Ewan, your team is greatly diminished."

"Find him yet?" Will asked Jack.

"No."

Jess crossed her arms and continued to glare at Zordon's tank. "So who is this Scorpina bitch?"

"Another of Rita's monstrous creations. One of the most terrible powers she uncovered ten-thousand years ago was the ability to convert innocent creatures into raging monsters driven by her dark ambition. Scorpina was a woman once. I had thought her destroyed by the first Rangers. There is much Rita has hidden from me."

"If April dies, I'm breaking your little fish tank."

"Can you save her, Zordon?" asked Will again. The pain in Will's voice was unmistakable. There was no doubt in Jack's mind that his friend was back in the hospital, with his dead parents and sister. Jack did his best to ignore Will's pain and focus on finding Ewan. He had to. Ewan's life may depend on Jack's speed.

"She will not die," Zordon assured them. "Scorpina's venom can be extracted and April's wounds healed, but it will take time."

Will looked as relieved as Jack felt. April would be alright. "What should we do next?" Will asked.

"Hang on," cut in Jess. "I'm not going anywhere until Zordon tells us more about what we're dealing with. We went into this fight knowing nothing. We blindly followed his orders because he was this huge cosmic head and could speak in our minds and all this shit, and look where it got us."

"_Knowing is half the battle_," Jack recited.

"Dork."

"The visions you have experienced will tell you more than I ever could," said Zordon.

"Great."

"Now that Rita knows of your existence," Zordon continued, "you and the rest of Cedar Grove will be in even greater danger. She is one of the most cunning beings I have ever known, and ten-thousand years of the Power strengthening her mind has only made her more dangerous. You must be ready for anything."

"Our main priority should be minimalizing civilian casualties," suggested Will. "We need to get out there and help others."

"Look where that landed April," grumbled Jess.

Jack's console beeped excitedly, but what it showed him made his heart plummet through his gut. "The computer has completed its search," Jack reported, "but…"

"But what?" asked Will.

"But Ewan isn't anywhere, not on Earth, not in this solar system. Zordon, what…"

"I am afraid those readings are dire news indeed, Jack," said Zordon. "They can only mean one thing: Ewan is being held in Rita's Dark Dimension."


	29. Episode 6 Ch 3 Dark Matters

Episode 6, Chapter 3 – Jess

Silence filled the Command Center. Not even Alpha had a wisecrack, which told Jess more than anything that this Dark Dimension was not exactly a vacation spot in the tropics.

"So…" she began, "what the fuck is the Dark Dimension? It sounds like some stupid comic book lair or something."

"I'm afraid that this is most serious, Rangers," said Zordon. "The Dark Dimension is a place of pure evil, an extension of Rita Repulsa's corrupted Power that feeds off the dark energy of the universe."

"Dark energy?" Jack asked. "Like dark matter?"

"Similar, yes. The scientists of Earth have tried to study these two forces for years, but they have no idea what they are dealing with. There is more dark matter and more dark energy in the universe than any other form of matter. In fact, everything you know, everything you see – the Earth, humans, animals, water – all matter in the universe only makes up 5% of the universe's total mass. The other 95% is dark energy and dark matter."

"Damn," said Jess.

"Your scientists believe that the universe is expanding because of dark energy, and they are correct. Dark matter breeds evil, and dark energy is evil's manifestation in this universe. The amount of dark energy has grown rapidly since life began on your world and others, and if its growth is not quelled soon, the universe may expand to such a degree that each solar system will become isolated within its own galaxy."

"I don't get it, Zordon," said Will.

"Tell me: how much easier is it to simply tell a lie when you have done something wrong? How is it that those with wealth and power so often appear to be corrupt beyond reason? Why is it that the nice guy finishes last? The answer lies in what I have already told you. With so much dark energy and matter in the universe, it is astonishing that good has ever overcome such odds, but that is what makes goodness and virtue so powerful: the meager 5% of good can combat the 95% evil. It is this fact which still gives me hope that you will prevail over Rita Repulsa and her evil army."

Jess turned to Jack and laughed. "You buyin' any of this, Brainiac?"

Jack shushed her, which simply did _not_ happen. "What has Rita done with the dark matter and dark energy, Zordon?" he asked. Jess had rarely seen such a light in her brother's eyes.

"Long ago," said Zordon, "Rita found a way to use her power of Ambition to harness the universe's dark energy and create a world made entirely of dark matter, which in turn fed more dark energy unto itself. Only those connected to Rita's Power may enter this realm. There, she may take any creature she wishes and bend it to her will. Eventually, her corruption will overtake the creature, and it will become one of her monsters."

"Can she do that to a Ranger?" asked Will.

"Yes," said Zordon. "As I said before, Scorpina was a woman once. She was the first Yellow Ranger."

"WHAT!" The three Rangers had cried out in unison. That that Scorpina bitch had once been a Ranger was possibly the worst news Jess had heard all night. "How is that possible?" asked Jack.

"When isolated within the Dark Dimension," said Zordon, "one's Power loses its strength. The Yellow Ranger of old – all of the former Rangers but White, in fact – could not call upon her Power to aid her. Slowly, Rita's ambition corrupted the young Ranger's mind and separated it from her power. Then, the Ranger became part of the Black Ranger Power, and I was eventually able to reclaim the Yellow Ranger Power and cleanse it of its taint."

"So Ewan…" Will started.

"Will become a slave to Rita's black arts unless he is freed," confirmed Zordon.

"Then we have to do something!"

"Like what?" Jess laughed. "Infiltrate Rita's base, wherever the hell _that_ is, find her, and ask her nicely to let us into her little playground of pure evil?"

"If we have to, then yes. We won't let Ewan become a monster."

"Will, we couldn't even infiltrate a police station with all five of us. What makes you think that three of us will be able to sneak into Rita's base? We don't even know where it is!"

"Indeed you do," said Zordon. "I'm sure you witnessed it in the lake outside of Cedar Grove."

"I knew I saw something out there," muttered Will.

Jess had no idea what they were talking about, and she said as much.

"When all the water in the lake was blasted out," said Will, "and when Goldar was about to kill me on the cliffs, I saw something out on the lake bed, something like a building, but I couldn't quite make it out. I thought everyone had seen it."

"Sorry," said Jess, "but I was a little too preoccupied with Goldar and the _fucking apocalypse_ to notice a building at the bottom of a lake."

"Nevertheless, it is there," said Zordon. "But until you master your powers, you will have little hope of infiltrating Rita's fortress."

"How does Rita move between the Dark Dimension and Earth?" asked Jack.

"One's consciousness is transported via special radio waves broadcasted from Rita's fortress. Rita manipulates dark energy to amplify the signal and carry it to her world of dark matter."

"What if we built a device to intercept these radio waves and use them ourselves?"

"Your wisdom serves you well, Jack," said Zordon. "Indeed, it may be possible, but the risk is almost beyond reckoning. Even if you intercept Rita's signal, there will still be the matter of freeing Ewan from the Dark Dimension's grasp. Also, as I said before, only one's consciousness is held in the Dark Dimension; the body remains here. Therefore, Rita may have taken Ewan's body to her fortress in the event that such a rescue was attempted. You would still have to liberate him from there."

"It'd be simpler if you fools just found yourselves a new Yellow Ranger," said Alpha. As he spoke, the little machine he held over April began to beep.

"No," said Will. "We're saving Ewan. One step at a time. Jack, isn't your professor…"

Jack grinned and nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

Jess blushed. Will knew more about her brother than she did, and as a twin, she found that both insulting and humiliating. She was vaguely aware that Jack was a research assistant for some dorky scientist at Cedar Grove University, but she had no idea what they did. She just knew that Jack was always on campus, and that sometimes he came home with strange chemical burns on his arms and clothes. Once he came home missing an eyebrow and some of the hair on the right side of his head. Their parents had thrown a fit and had forbidden him to keep working at the University. Naturally, he had gone behind their backs, and Jess had been more than happy to cover for him. The less their parents had control over their lives the better, as far as Jess was concerned.

"Zordon," said Jack, "I know someone who can help. I work with a professor at Cedar Grove University who is one of Earth's leading researchers of dark matter and dark energy. He's also a brilliant mechanical engineer; If I can bring him here, I'm sure that he and I can come up with something, maybe make some kind of machine to intercept Rita's signal and get one of us into the Dark Dimension."

"I am aware of this man," said Zordon. "But you cannot bring him to this Command Center."

"Why in the hell not?" asked Jess. "Can't go against your little code?"

"Were a regular human to witness the technology within this stronghold, it may interfere with the technological growth of your planet," said Zordon.

Jess burst out in laughter. "Please tell me you're joking! Interfere? So rather than have us advance too much, you'd rather Rita blast us back to the stone age. Holy shit Zordon, why do you even exist?"

"Watch it human," Alpha buzzed, though he was still distracted by the beeping from his machine. Jess began to wonder what it meant, and whether or not it was a good sign. She might have been able to tell if Alpha had any fucking facial expressions.

"If we bring him here," urged Jack, "then we'll have more time. Time moves slowly here, and we're going to need the extra tech at our disposal if we want any chance of making this thing work. I think he can do it, Zordon. I've never met anyone so smart."

The stupid cloud in Zordon's fish tank sighed. "Very well, but while he is here you all must wear your armor. You will have to find a way to convince him to accompany you without telling him who you are. And once he is finished here, I will have to wipe his memory of this place."

"Anything else, oh wise one?" asked Jess.

Alpha answered instead. "Zordon!" he shouted. "The venom! It's resisting extraction!"

Will swore loudest of everyone. The twins rushed to April's side, where Will still stood. Jess' movement felt sluggish now that she wasn't in her Ranger armor. It might not have stopped attacks from Rita's thugs, but damn had it made her feel fast and powerful.

"If that is the case," said Zordon, "then things are worse than I had feared."

"What can we do?" asked Will.

"I am afraid that Goldar carries the only antivenom, given to him by Rita in case the Yellow Ranger still inside Scorpina ever fought for control and attacked Rita or her followers."

"So teleport Jack's dorky buddy here and let us go after Goldar," said Jess. She wanted another crack at the monkey freak now that she had a sword of her own.

"I am afraid I cannot, Rangers," said Zordon. "The University is under siege by Rita's monsters. I cannot teleport him away while enemies are so close by. Goldar has retreated to Rita's fortress, but he may be drawn out if you reveal yourselves. You should teleport to the University and do battle with the monsters there to try to lure Goldar away. If he sees that there are only thee of you, he will surely attack. It is risky, but I believe it is the only way for you to succeed in saving both of your friends."

"Alright everyone," said Will. "Let's get back out there. _Honor_!"

"_Strength_!" shouted Jack.

Jess took a deep breath and glanced back at April. She looked completely lifeless on that bed. She had been so brave and so stupid to take on Scorpina by herself. Jess refused to let her down, but the sight of the fallen Ranger had suddenly shaken her. She felt downright terrified that she, or Jack, or even Will, might not come back from this. "_Courage_!" she shouted, as much for her own sake as for her Power. Red flames enveloped her, and for the second time she felt the surge of strength as the Power of Zordon's Rangers roared through her body.

"Alright then," said Jack once the three of them were once more in their cloth-and-leather armor, "let's go find Professor Cranston."


	30. Episode 6 Ch 4 The Professor

Episode 6, Chapter 4 – Dr. Cranston

Dr. Bill Cranston peeked out his laboratory's window. Even from the university's top floor, the pandemonium below was readily apparent. The few guards and even fewer students and professors who had decided to spend their Fourth of July on campus, whether to watch fireworks from the roof or, as Dr. Cranston had, to work in peace and quiet, were running for their lives from the monsters pouring into the courtyard below.

Dr. Cranston wiped his glasses on his shirt and looked again. Bullets from the guns of the guards ripped through the strange humanoid _things_ as they slowly advanced, but not a single monster fell. They came from all directions, and as the professor watched, a much larger monster that looked like it was made out of pure lightning strode slowly into the central courtyard and barked orders to the mud monsters with a voice that cracked in the dry air.

The professor knew the university's layout well. All the exits were covered; he would not be able to escape these fiends, whatever they were.

Instead, he set to work on a new device.

He had no idea how long he worked. Time in his lab had a strange way of acting; days could last minutes or weeks. It usually depended on how many other people were there, but in general, the more people, the longer the day. Dr. Cranston preferred to work alone; precious few people could keep up with his mind or even understand the way he spoke. Humans were so difficult and confusing; not like machines at all. Machines did what you wanted them to do. No surprises, no emotions. No ulterior motives.

Once he had made his prototype device, the duplicates came with ease, and Bill's mind began to wander. Thinking about time and people and how so few understood him had taken him back to his first and only true love, way back in high school nearly twenty years ago.

Trini. The first besides his parents who really understood him. She was so beautiful, so caring, and he had never found the courage to make a move. They lost contact after she was selected for a world teen summit in Switzerland. Bill heard rumors now and then, mostly from friends of friends and that sort of thing. The teen summit had changed the lives of all his friends from high school. Hell, half of his closest friends had gone, and such success had altered their lives so drastically that it would have seemed almost foolish for them to return to Cedar Grove, even though two of them had done just that anyway.

But not Trini. She never came back.

When he first heard the news that she had died in a car accident, Bill wept for weeks. That was years ago now, yet the very thought of seeing her lifeless form at the funeral still brought tears to his eyes. He could have saved her, he knew. If he had worked up the courage to ask her on a date, things would have been different. She would have come back to Cedar Grove. She would never have been in that car.

Dr. Cranston removed his glasses, wiped his eyes, and listened to the hallway. There were screams from the floors below, then an explosion that shook the floor and rattled the lab's delicate machines. His time was almost up.

He scooped his devices into his bag and crept to the door. He poked his head out and looked both ways. No monsters yet, but he distinctly heard a sort of otherworldly garble of speech from the left. Ducking low, he stumbled to the right and down the hall.

The professor had hardly gone ten meters when there was a cry from behind him. He turned and saw five of those strange mud creatures hurrying down the hall; he'd been spotted. He ducked into a lab and pulled one of his devices from his bag. He had taken note of how quickly the monsters were running, and, cross-referencing that with the length of the hall, he calculated the time it would take for the monsters to reach him. He had to time it just right…

"Three," he whispered, "two, one…"

He punched a button and slung the little device through the doorway and into the hall. The resulting flash of the explosion lit up the dark lab and cast brief shadows onto the walls. Dr. Cranston heard the mud monsters scream, and he dared a glance out the door.

His device had flash-frozen the five monsters from the waist down. Their muddy composition rendered them invulnerable to standard ballistics, but temperature was a whole other matter. The monsters flailed about on the floor, their legs completely shattered into a thousand pieces all around them.

"Chalk one up to science," Dr. Cranston grinned. He slung his bag over his shoulder and ran back into the hallway.

One of the monsters pushed itself toward the professor and grabbed onto his ankle with such force that Bill tumbled to the floor. His chin slammed into linoleum, and his glasses bounced off his nose and into the blur that was the professor's miserable natural vision. He reached blindly in the direction they had gone but found nothing. The monster yanked on his leg and dragged him closer. Bill turned and landed a kick in the monster's face, but its grip didn't loosen. Instead, the monster growled and flicked its wrist. Bill heard a snap and felt the searing pain of a broken ankle. He cried out and continued to struggle, but the monster twisted his foot again, and the pain was so great that Bill could no longer concentrate on anything else except a prayer for the torment to cease.

One of the monsters shouted, and Bill felt the grip on his ankle go slack. He wrenched his shattered foot away from the beast and dragged himself towards where his glasses had been. Tears welled in his eyes, which made him even more blind than usual. He told himself to order contacts as soon as he got home. _If_ he got home.

Something grabbed his shoulder, and he wildly tried to slap the thing away.

"Woah," someone said. Her voice, though it also had a strange sense of _other_ to it, was clearly not that of the mud monsters. With a great effort, Bill turned himself over onto his back and tried to see what had spoken.

A red blur bent over him, and a gloved hand came into focus near his face. "Can you stand, Professor?" the woman asked.

Bill hesitated, then he grabbed the glove and was hoisted onto his good foot. He hopped on it for a moment and was about to fall over when a second person caught him. "Here," the new person – a man, this time – handed him something.

A pair of glasses.

Bill leaned on the man's shoulder as he put the glasses back on. As the hallway came into focus, he realized that the mud monsters had disappeared, though the icy effects of the freeze bomb still glimmered on the hallway's floors and walls. The woman before him wore a strange armor of leather and red cloth, with a salamander stamped on her chest and countless scratches and tears in all places. Her face was covered in a kind of turban that only revealed her eyes, which glowed with a red light that seemed to come from within. The light flickered as the woman's gaze shifted from Bill's face to his broken ankle and back.

Another armored man, this one in all white and with a lion on his chest, stepped out from the lab in which Bill had hidden a moment before. Bill noticed a faint wisp of something like pale steam that rose softly from the man's white glowing eyes.

"You're hurt," the man said. "We need to get you out of here."

Bill winced; his leg throbbed, and the sheer intensity of the pain was making him light-headed.

"What are they?" he managed to ask.

"The mudmen?" asked the woman. "Long story, but basically they suck balls."

"They're evil beings corrupted by dark energy, Professor," said the man on whose shoulder Bill was leaning. Bill was hurt, for sure, but even the pain couldn't keep him from gawking at what the man had just said.

"Dark… energy?" Bill said, dumbfounded. Years of research, of ridicule, of coming up short and feeling like the answer was always just beyond his grasp, and here this strange man in a strange green suit just comes out and tells him the answer he's been seeking for his entire scientific career?

"Yes. Dark energy. They're taking over the city, and if you don't help us, they'll take over the entire planet. We need you, Professor Cranston."

Bill Cranston's mind wandered back to Trini. He hadn't made a move. He had done nothing, and now she was gone. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"How can I help?" he asked.

The three armored people looked at each other. "Fuck," said the woman, "that was easy."


	31. Episode 6 Ch 5 The Dark Dimension

Episode 6, Chapter 5 – Ewan

He awoke within nothing. Ewan saw nothing and, for a time, felt nothing. His body was suspended in black, and he thought of naught but darkness.

He became aware of a chilling sensation that trickled up his back over what felt like hours. After what could have been days or minutes, Ewan realized that he was lying down on cold stone. When he first tried to sit up, his limbs refused to work. The second try found that his waist was working but his arms were not, so he only managed to sort of roll over and grind his face into the frozen slab. On the third try, he pushed himself up and onto his knees, and as he did, his vision left the darkness and came into something else.

Black fog hugged the ground up to Ewan's knees, and while everything above was still very dark, once he cleared the fog Ewan began to see the room in which he now kneeled.

He was in some kind of octagonal prison. Grey bars lined every side. Yellow candles hung suspended in the air above him, and nothing but black lay beyond in all directions. There was no ceiling, but the blank, oppressive weight of the nothingness above the prison was every bit as effective at containing Ewan as any solid cover might.

Ewan climbed to his feet, but he grew painfully light-headed from rising and fell back down to the floor. The jolt of falling knocked his memories back into his mind with such force that it took him some time to sort through them all and remember who and where he was.

He had been in the police station with some friends. They'd been sneaking around, and he had separated from them to go searching on his own. He couldn't remember why, and it was some time before he recalled what happened next. He had come across a door, and it had spellbound him. He simply _had_ to know what lay beyond it. What he had found instead was…

"Shit!" he leapt to his feet as the sudden memory of Goldar grimaced in his mind's eye. He looked down at his hands. He was still in his Ranger armor, but he felt sluggish and… _normal_, not at all like the super-awesome Power Ranger that he had been. He felt his head. Still covered. Why hadn't Goldar removed it? Revealing his identity would remove his powers, right? His holster was empty, though. Goldar wasn't a complete idiot, just mostly one.

"Hello?" Ewan called. He remembered nothing after Goldar hit him with the butt of his sword. Maybe his friends had saved him, and he was in some weird-ass room of the Command Center. Maybe Alpha was playing some practical joke on him. It seemed like something the stupid tin can would do. "Hello?" he shouted again.

Someone whimpered nearby. Ewan looked in the direction of the sound and saw the ground-fog shift around something. He stumbled to it – his legs still refused to work properly – and felt around the fog for the source. His hand alighted on something soft and warm. It shrank away from him, but he felt around in the fog some more until he found what was unmistakably an arm. It was slender and smooth – definitely a woman.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he promised. The woman whimpered again, but she didn't shy away from his touch. He pulled on the arm and helped the woman up.

Ewan's eyes nearly bulged out of his head when the woman came into view. She was shockingly beautiful, with long dark hair and big brown eyes that looked Mediterranean or Middle-Eastern or… something. What really surprised Ewan, though, was the see-through yellow gown and the unbelievable body under it. He blushed and tried not to stare as he helped her up, but she may as well have been naked for all the good her gown did, and to say that she was well-endowed would have been like saying that this prison was a bit shy on lighting.

"We must get out of here," the woman pleaded. She was in such a state that she didn't even seem to care about covering herself. She latched onto Ewan's arm and looked up at his face with tears in those gorgeous brown eyes. Ewan was so much taller than her that he could not focus on her face, for her busty form shared the view. He was thankful for the Ranger armor but also annoyed by it, for it kept his body away from hers.

"Where are we?" he asked, choosing to focus on the walls behind the woman. He couldn't speak when he looked at her. When he did, all thoughts just seemed to drift away, and all that mattered was this woman, her transparent clothes, and that pleading look in her eyes.

"We are safe from the troubles of Earth," the woman said. She stopped crying, and with each word her voice began to sound more and more sure. "We are in another dimension."

Faintly, part of Ewan noticed that this woman's accent was one he'd never heard before. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Serket," said the woman. "I have lived in this Dark Dimension for some time. You could say that I have been trapped here." She pressed herself against Ewan, who looked down into her face once more and was gripped with the overwhelming desire to remove all of his clothes and hers. With everything that had happened tonight, he could do with a little sex, and this Serket woman didn't look like she would object.

Ewan remembered that it was his turn to speak in this conversation, so he searched the prison for something to say. She had said they were in another dimension, and that she was trapped. Everywhere Ewan looked beyond the barred walls, there was nothing but black. The walls weren't very high, though. Without the strength of his suit, he was sure that he wouldn't be able to just jump over the walls, but maybe…

"Have you ever tried to climb out?" he asked as he tried to tell his armor to scan the walls. No response. Did his Power not work here at all?

"No," said Serket. "You cannot reach the walls."

"What do you mean? They're right there."

"Every step you take towards them pushes them two steps away. You could run at them for hours, but they would recede from your grasp until you could no longer see them."

"Then how do we get out of here?"

"If I knew," said Serket with a toss of her hair," I would have escaped long ago. But I have never before seen someone with such power." She stroked his arm, and his mind began to wander back to her. "I have been so lonely." Her hand moved from his arm to his chest. It circled the emblem with the phoenix before it began to move further down. Ewan let out a small gasp and pulled away from the sex-starved woman.

"Damn!" he shouted. He'd never seen anyone come onto anyone else so strongly. It was like he was living out some cheap porno. He appreciated the attention, but something felt… off.

"What's wrong?" asked Serket. She held her arms out to her sides, as if to invite Ewan into her chest. "Should we refuse the comfort of each other's embrace? If we are to remain here, why not spend eternity in bliss?"

_I will not have sex, I will not have sex…_

"Believe me," said Ewan, "I would love to. You're smokin' hot, but I…" He struggled to think of why he needed to get out of this strange place. He couldn't remember why he shouldn't let this goddess of a woman have her way with him.

"If you would but remove that suit," Serket continued, "then we could lie down and let the fog envelope us in our love. Forever. Don't you want that? Don't you want… _me_?"

He focused again on how he had arrived at this place. He had been with his friends. They had become superheroes. They were saving the city… _My friends_, he thought. _Yes, they are why I need to get out. What would Will do? Ugh, God. Thinking about Will when I have a hard-on sure kills the mood_. He pictured Will standing before him instead of Serket, and any desire for sex that he may have once had vanished so quickly that Ewan almost felt silly for wanting to so it in the first place.

His sex drive held in check, Ewan looked around the octagon again, but he could find no way out. He began to walk towards one of the walls, but just as Serket said, the walls retreated away from him at twice the speed. When he turned back around, there she was, so close to him that he could feel her warmth. She looked up into his eyes with such longing that Ewan forgot about Will entirely. She reached toward him and grabbed his hand with a hopeful smile. He let her guide it towards her, where she placed it on her breast.

In a flash, Ewan's mind rocketed from this prison and landed… right back in the prison. There he sat, only now he was the Yellow Ranger of old, holding her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth. She had failed her village. She had failed Rita. Rita had charged her with the task of protecting Rita's lover, the great hunter Dredwing, and she, a Power Ranger, had failed.

And Rita had claimed vengeance. She had torched the village and imprisoned her old friend. The Yellow Ranger still couldn't believe it. The very thought that her closest friend had betrayed her was enough to drive her mad.

And so it did.

There was no telling how long the Yellow Ranger sat trapped in the Dark Dimension. Without the sun and moon, without the need for sleep and food, she simply sat and reflected on her misery. The Dark Dimension shifted around her to reflect her thoughts. For a time, she sat on the cliff overlooking her village in ashes, the colors oddly muted by the Dark Dimension's powers. Then the world shifted, and she sat on the volcanic summit where Dredwing had fallen under the ambush of a dark fiend, its body now lying where the Yellow Ranger had slain it.

As she sat staring at the bodies of the fiend and Rita's lover, Dredwing's body rose to its feet and placed its hands and face in the flames of the fiend's body. The volcano vanished. The Yellow Ranger once more sat in the fog of the Dark Dimension, only where Dredwing had stood in her memory, a demon now grinned at her. It looked like the hell fiend, with its fiery fur and golden armor and wicked dark wings, only this creature was smaller, and it stood on two legs like some grotesque human.

"Greetings, _failure_!" laughed the demon. Its voice was rough and smoky, like the voice of fire itself. "I hope you have enjoyed Rita's hospitality!"

"Burn in the fires of hell," croaked the Ranger. Speaking had been harder than she had expected, though she no longer wondered how long it had been since she had been imprisoned. As best as she could remember, her whole life had been spent in this prison, and the memories she witnessed were not her own but those of someone else dead and forgotten in some far-off land.

The demon laughed again. "Oh, but I already have! Don't you recognize me? It was you who led me there!"

When she offered no response, the demon strode towards her, buried his sword blade-first into the ground, and yanked the woman to her feet. He glared at her as he held her by her tattered shirt. Where his eyes should have been, there was only fire. Something about the way he walked stirred a memory within the Yellow Ranger.

"You stand before the great Goldar," growled the demon. He snatched his sword out of the ground and held its blade against her throat. Now she saw it: the way he moved, the way he held his sword. She knew those movements.

"Dredwing," she muttered. Even such a strange revelation could spark no emotion within her. Such was the sapping power of the Dark Dimension.

The monster laughed. "Pathetic human. Since my death, I have become so much more. Rita's power is beyond anything you can possibly imagine! Join her, and nothing will be beyond your grasp!"

Her memories must have been lies. Dredwing had not died on that volcano top, for here he stood. Rita had done the impossible. She could alter the very fabric of time and change memories. If she could bring Dredwing back from the dead, then surely…

"She saved you when I could not. My village… She could save them. Bring them back from the dead, just as she did you…" The Ranger no longer remembered Rita as she had been, standing atop the cliff overlooking the village in flames. The Ranger recalled her dear friend, the one who, now, had found the power to return loved ones to life. She could join her friend and atone for her failures. She could save her family. "Please," the Ranger whispered. "Lend me Rita's power, so that I, too, may save those whom I love."

"Heh heh heh, gladly…" Goldar reached into a pocket hidden on his belt and withdrew something that squirmed and fought against him. He held it up near the Ranger's face, and in the back of her dimmed mind she knew the thing to be a scorpion. Goldar placed it on her shoulder, and almost immediately it stung her neck. The pain was intense, yet she hardly cared. The pain would bring her family back. She would be with her friend, and she would save everyone.

"Soon, Serket," rasped Goldar, "You will become as me: a slave to Rita's _Ambition_. Cast away your _Spirit_. Become one with Rita's black Power."

"Y-yes, Dredwing. I will serve Rita…"

Her vision clouded. Ewan fell back into himself and jerked his hand away from the woman before him. He looked at Serket again, and for the first time he began to see through her illusion. Where he had thought stood the most beautiful woman in the world there was, in fact, a strange woman with long stingers coiled around her neck and a scorpion's tail protruding from the base of her spine. The stinger peeked over her shoulder like a curious child, and its pointed tip was so long that Ewan had no doubt this woman could impale him if she chose.

He stumbled away from Serket as clarity began to take its hold on his brain. This woman used to be as he was. She had been a Ranger, and she had fallen. Christ, she was 10,000 years old.

"Don't you want me?" the woman asked. Her voice had changed as well. Now it was high and grating; not at all like the sultry bombshell from before. She ran her hands down her own body, and Ewan realized that now she wore golden armor similar to Goldar's.

"I think you're a little old for me," said Ewan. "Like, about ten-thousand years too old. I usually try to date within my own generation."

Serket's false smile dropped. Her scorpion's tail tensed and darted from one shoulder to the other. She crossed her arms and frowned at Ewan. "Then let us end this foolish charade. My name is Scorpina. You will know it well before the end."

"You just gave up," said Ewan. He wasn't sure that provoking Serket was the best option, but in this Dark Dimension, he had no other weapon but his words. "I saw you. You were stupid enough to think that Rita would bring back the family that she had killed. Tell me, did she bring your village back from the dead? Did they look like demons, like our dear friend Goldylocks? How many of them are made of clay and have this weird habit of crumbling to dust when you kill them?"

Scorpina's tail lashed out in front of her. It had no chance of reaching Ewan, but its message was obvious: _Don't mess with me, asshole_.

"You are spirited, I will give you that," growled Scorpina.

"Got that right, motherfucker," Ewan grinned. He recalled what Zordon had said when he had first joined his friends in the fight against Rita. _I am the Holder of Spirit_, he thought. _I am tenacious, strong, and swift like the wind. My soul is unbreakable. I am what it means to be human and free_. He repeated the thought again in his head, and one by one memories began to return to him.

Out loud, he cried, "You will not keep me imprisoned for long, Rita!"

Scorpina screamed at him. The fog near her feet raced up her body and enveloped her in black before falling back to the ground. She was gone.

"You could have ended your life in bliss," came Scorpina's voice from the void. "You could have given in to your human lust and succumbed to Rita's power with a smile, but we see now that you are foolish, even for a human. You have chosen pain beyond imagining, Ranger, and we will grant it to you. You will beg for Rita's mercy before the end. And when we learn your true identity, your suffering will be nothing compared to that of your family…"


	32. Episode 7 Ch 1 Lightning Rods

Episode 7, Chapter 1 – Will

Will dove headfirst behind a rectangular structure just as a hail of bullets ripped through the air. Jess was further along the rooftop from him; Jack and the professor were somewhere behind. Will used his heads-up display to scan through the AC generator or whatever it was shielding him and saw the small army of mudmen that poured out of the broken stairwell door at the far end of the roof. The mudmen shifted their fire to Jack and Dr. Cranston, and Will knew that the pipes the two humans crouched behind would not be able to protect them for long.

Will couldn't understand why Goldar hadn't shown up yet. He had assumed that Goldar would leap at the opportunity to hunt three Rangers and a wounded human as soon as Rita's army found them, yet there was no sign of the demon.

Just lots and lots of clay men with assault rifles, pistols, and anything else they could find.

Dr. Cranston rummaged through his bag and handed Jack something that looked like a large grenade. Jack pressed a button on its top and lobbed it towards the stair door. A blinding flash and a wave of gurgling cries soon followed.

The bullets stopped flying long enough for Will to peek around the side of his AC unit. Where the device had landed there was now a blast zone of ice and mudmen who had been shattered from the waist down. They dragged themselves to their guns and tried to fire, but more often than not they toppled over and shot one of their own. Will took aim with his pistol, and white beams joined red in disintegrating the monsters one by one.

_Go!_ Will thought to Jack. Jack scooped the professor into his arms as easily as he might a duffle bag and raced across the roof towards Jess while the other two Rangers provided cover fire. When Jack reached Jess' position, he began firing, and Jess took off for the roof's edge. Dozens of mudmen continued to rush out of the stairwell, and it wasn't long before the professor handed Jack another of his freeze-grenades to launch.

This time, though, the mudmen were prepared, and they scattered as soon as the grenade left Jack's hand. Only three got caught in the blast.

Jess took several more shots and then dove over the roof's edge. A moment later, she was calling for Jack to heave the professor over the edge himself.

The Rangers on the roof paused. Something was wrong, and Will knew that Jack had noticed it as well. The mudmen had stopped shooting.

In the newfound silence Will's enhanced hearing picked up a dull rumbling sound from somewhere far behind him. He turned and saw lightning flash in the skies over the city. A storm was headed this way, and it was moving fast.

_Not natural_, thought Jack.

_You are correct, Green Ranger_, thought Zordon. _That storm is of Rita's doing. I sense that there is a powerful monster near you who is harnessing its power. Without the other Rangers, you will have no chance against this fiend._

_I'm not returning to base until we've gotten that antidote off of Goldar_, thought Will.

_Our scanners are not picking him up anywhere in the city, White Ranger. Our plan to lure him out has failed._

_Goldar is a coward and a bully. He'll come out if he has the right incentive._

Will was slowly forming an idea, but it was risky, far riskier than anything he or the other Rangers had done so far. If this didn't work out how he hoped it would…

_Rangers_, urged Zordon, _you must be careful. Our sensors are reading a great energy moving towards your location._

_Green, get the professor off the roof_, Will thought.

The rumbling of thunder increased with each passing second, and soon the mudmen began firing again. Will couldn't hear their conversation over the heavy fire from the mudmen and himself, but he could only imagine what Jack must have said to convince Dr. Cranston to agree to be thrown off the roof and to the ground some seven or eight stories below.

_White, _thought Jack_, start shooting when I throw the next cryogenic particle decelerator._

_ The what?_

_ The freeze bomb._

_ You always did say Dr. Cranston had a way with words._

_ Indeed. On my mark. Three, two one. Now._

Jack lobbed a freeze bomb from cover, and at the same time Will stood and fired. The coordinated attack disoriented the mudmen just long enough for Will to pick off four of them and the bomb to land in the midst of another eight. Will ducked back down in time to avoid the blinding flash, then he stood and went as trigger-happy as he could to keep the mudmen from firing at Jack and Dr. Cranston. As the professor disappeared over the roof's edge, Will ducked back down and breathed a sigh of relief.

_White, here_, thought Jack. Will looked to his friend just in time to see a freeze bomb being lobbed his way. _Press the button on top_, thought Jack. _We have two left_.

Will understood what Jack was implying. _You take left_, he thought.

_Of course._

_Three, two, one._

The Green and White Rangers threw their freeze bombs to either side of the stairwell door, causing complete and utter panic in the mudmen forces. The bombs exploded as one, and the two Rangers took off for the roof's edge. Jack reached it first and quickly disappeared, but Will lingered. He slowed his pace to allow the mudmen time to reclaim their weapons. When he reached the roof's ledge, he leapt high and felt the bullets streak past. He twisted out of the path of one of the shooters and managed to get a bullet to pass through the side of his suit without touching skin. He fell to the ground, rolled, and joined the others in the shadow of a nearby building.

_The more injured Goldar thinks we are, the more likely he'll come out to finish us off… I hope_.


	33. Episode 7 Ch 2 Consequences

Episode 7, Chapter 2 – April

She would have cheered if she could move. Though April's body lay unmoving within the Command Center, her mind was tethered to its computer mainframe, which allowed her to monitor her comrades just as closely as Zordon and Alpha could.

But, because of the Command Center's time distortion, watching the other Rangers was painfully slow, and she found it difficult to focus on them for very long. Instead she spent her time on other pursuits, like watching Alpha tend to the Rangers' new armor. She even tried to use the computers to search for Ewan, but they were too complicated, and she never was very good with machinery.

She checked in with the Rangers throughout their fight atop the roof of the University, which for her seemed to take hours. She marveled at the freeze bombs that Dr. Cranston had made – particularly with no light but that of the full moon – and she felt a wave of relief rush over her when Will joined the others on the ground. She had feared that he would repeat her mistakes with Scorpina when he took so long to get off the roof, but his plan to appear injured, not to mention his ability to move so that his armor was pierced but he was not, showed incredible cunning.

_The powers chose well, Zordon, _April thought_. Will's a good leader. I would have been terrible._

_ Will has a rare talent, _agreed Zordon,_ but to think that you would be ill-suited for his position is to make an egregious error of judgment on your own part. The Power Rangers are a team, and each of you will serve in a leadership role at some point._

Zordon's words made April uneasy. Her? Leading? She couldn't even decide on a college major. _My actions landed me here. I was stupid, and now the others are out there trying to get shot so that they can get an antidote for me. I made a big mistake. I never should have fought Scorpina like that._

_ What you did was very brave, and it has done more for this city than you could possibly know. You actions have inspired the officers you saved. Observe._

Before her mind's eye appeared images from around the city. They were from Zordon's memory; April hadn't even realized that he had been tracking these people. Sight after sight flashed before her, each one showing the officers she and Jess saved in quick succession. They left the station. They rendezvoused with the officers about to attack Goldar. They convinced them to leave and help others around the city. They scattered and dug through rubble, searched nearby buildings, tended to the injured. A group of them found Jason the paramedic, and together they led a mass of civilians towards the outskirts of the city.

_Your self-sacrifice has started a chain-reaction among the defenders of Cedar Grove, _said Zordon._ The men and women you saved have spread the word about you and the other Rangers. They are spreading hope, and right now, that is what this city needs more than anything else in the world. Tell me: did you know that this city used to be known as Angel Grove?_

April was shocked. Towns hardly ever renamed themselves. _No, I didn't. Why did they change it?_

_Politics. Business. Other details not worth going in to. My point is that the people of this city have now heard of the Power Rangers. They are calling you their "guardian angels", and many are even suggesting that the city to return to its old name in your honor._

_ That's kind of a silly thing to think about right now. We might not save the town at all; then it wouldn't matter what they named it._

_ That is true. However, thoughts like these can make all the difference when hoping is all that you can do. If the citizens of Cedar Grove believe that, when this is all over, they will still have a city to rename, it gives them a brighter future to live for. Do you understand this?_

_ I think so. But why tell me this? What does this have to do with me? Those people don't even know who I am._

_ Neither do you, my dear. The Power of Harmony chose you for a reason. You have control over water, and like water, you adapt to your surroundings but have no definite shape yourself. Until you discover yourself, I am afraid that your powers will be limited. Water must focus itself if it wants to make an impact; so, too, must you._

Through their sensors linked to the other Rangers, April and Zordon heard a deep rumble from the gathering storm over the University. _How am I supposed to discover myself? _April asked._ And do we even have time?_

_Until the other Rangers find a cure, time is all you have. No one else can answer the question of who you are but yourself, April. If you would permit me, I would like to transport your mind to a place of meditation used by the old Blue Ranger, before his fall to Rita's power._

April used the base's computers to look at her own body lying in the medical bay. Her skin was horribly discolored where Scorpina's stingers had hit her, but at least the bullet wound in her leg was mostly better. Still, the very sight of those stinger wounds sent a dull throb through her body, and her mind longed for the ache to end. Her body launched into a coughing fit that did not stop until Alpha shuffled to her and held a small machine over her chest. With a tenderness April wasn't expecting, Alpha took a cloth from the table next to April's bed and wiped some blood from her mouth.

_Alright Zordon, _April thought._ Take me to this place. I have to do something besides lie here and die._

_ I will, but I must warn you. I detect a hint of Rita's influence remaining in this place. It will test you, and the April you find within may not be the April you thought you were._


	34. Episode 7 Ch 3 Enter the Maelstrom

Episode 7, Chapter 3 – Jack

The White Ranger's landing was unstable, and as he hobbled to the others hidden in the shadow of a nearby building, Will clutched his side and ran much slower than usual. For a moment, Jack was afraid that his friend had been shot.

_I promise I'm fine, _Will assured them_. If we act injured, then Goldar might be more willing to attack us._

_ Good idea_, thought Jack.

_It's never stopped him before, _thought Jess,_ but if you say so._

Will nodded. _I do. But we still need to get the professor out of here. He actually _is_ injured, after all._

"Professor," Jack said quietly, "I'm going to carry you again."

Dr. Cranston nodded. "I appear to be suffering from nyctalopia," he said. "Is your visual acuity at sufficient levels to traverse the campus?"

"Yes, we can see. We must get far away from the University before we can teleport to our base."

"Full molecular translocation?" Dr. Cranston asked, his eyes wide. "What kind of power source are you using?"

"Our power's one of a kind," said Jack. "Are you ready?"

"Affirmative." Jack scooped him up into his arms just as he had on the rooftop.

The Rangers' suits told them that there were less mudmen to the northwest, but that was where the clouds were gathering. _Something's not right about that storm, _thought Jess.

_ I agree, _thought Will._ Keep an eye out and your guard up. Pistols out. Guard the professor. _

The Rangers raced into the open. Cedar Grove University's campus was one of the biggest in the country, with dozens of acres of dark buildings and a maintenance man's nightmare of courtyards, water features, parking lots, bike stands, flower beds, and tress. Jack had been on campus at night many times before, but never with the power out. The wind from the storm began to blow in their face as they ran, making the trees rustle and the leaves on the ground twirl into the Rangers' path. The atmosphere would have unnerved the toughest jock, with the constant rumble of a storm before them and the odd shadows cast by the full moon.

_Hey Green, _thought Jess._ What did the professor say he was suffering from? Is he sick or something?_

_ Nyctalopia._ Jack chuckled. Even in their lab, he often had to translate for the other students. _It's night-blindness. It was his way of joking that he can't see a darn thing out here._

_ How the hell did he make those freeze bombs if the lights in his lab were out?_ asked Jess.

_I've told you before: Dr. Cranston is the smartest man I know._

Jack was thankful that the three Rangers all went to this school, for they knew shortcuts through the grounds that not even their heads-up displays showed. They took one now that led them into a narrow alley between two buildings. Jack could have reached out and touched either building, they were so close together.

The secret alley led them to a courtyard that stood between one of the fine arts buildings and the geology building. Without hesitation, Jess tore into the open and was set upon by a volley of bullets from mudmen hidden all around the courtyard. Will followed with his faked limp, and together they leapt high into the air, fired several rounds with their pistols, and landed on the roofs around them. Jack was the last to enter the courtyard, but by that time all of the attention was on the Red and White Rangers. He could only imagine what the scene looked like without his suit's night-vision capabilities, with hot bullets and red and white laser blasts ripping through the darkness.

The three of them continued running northwest, with Jess and Will hopping from rooftops to the ground and back and taking down countless mudmen while Jack, with Dr. Cranston still in his arms, raced along the ground behind them. Jack felt bullets whiz past him, but few of the shots came close enough for him to worry. The mudmen were numerous, but they were not very skilled.

The Rangers kept up this pace for some time, and all the while the storm ahead of them intensified. Lightning lit up the black clouds and, briefly, the entire campus. The full moon soon disappeared. Jack had the strangest feeling that he wouldn't see it again for some time.

_Almost to the north end of campus, _thought Will._ Just a bit further, past the psychology buildings. We should be clear for teleportation once we—_

A blast of light tore through the air and into the rooftop Will had been running across. Jack stopped, blinded by the lightning, and heard Will cry out in his mind while his ears rang with the intense crackling of lightning so close by.

Jack blinked several times and felt his suit scanning his eyes for any possible damage. They soon adjusted, and his HUD showed him the White Ranger lying under a pile of rubble at the base of the biology building.

_White!_ he cried. The scan told him that Will was alive but injured and unconscious. Jack started to run towards his friend, but a pair of lightning strikes stopped him dead in his tracks: one on Jess' roof to the right and one into the fountain next to Jack.

Jack's senses reeled. He felt his feet leave the ground and Dr. Cranston leave his arms as Jack sailed through the air and crashed head-first into something solid. He tried to bring himself to his feet, but something heavy on top of him was slowly crushing the air out of his lungs. He shoved it with all his might, and slowly the great mass shifted off him. He could breathe again.

He found himself inside the dusty remains of a classroom. A gaping hole in the wall marked his entrance, and half of the ceiling had caved in on him from the impact. He climbed to his feet and caught his breath before he remembered that he was not the only one to have been hit in that blast.

"Professor!" he called. Jack hurdled through the hole in the wall and was about to search the courtyard for Dr. Cranston when another lightning blast struck the remains of the courtyard's fountain. Jack shielded his eyes from the blast, and when he looked away he caught sight of the professor lying amongst some rubble. His suit told him that Dr. Cranston was, like Will, unconscious.

"Hello, Ranger," said a creature. Its voice was dry, and it spoke as though in a whisper, yet Jack heard it loud and clear. He lowered his hands and immediately found the speaker. Where the lightning had struck the fountain there now stood a being made of intense purple-white light, with jagged silver armor over its shoulders, legs, and head. Small sparks of electricity fell from its body. Where there should have been feet there was instead a root-like network of purple-white lightning anchoring the monster to the ground. The shadows it cast on the courtyard danced with an eerie light.

_Crud_, thought Jack. _Red. White. Get up._

No response.

The lightning monster tapped its head. "You seem to be a bright one," it rasped. "Surely you could guess that I can intercept your little transmissions. Your friends were like moving lightning rods up on those rooftops. How could I resist a bit of target practice?"

"Mind telling me who you are?" asked Jack. If he stalled, then perhaps his friends could regain consciousness and help him defeat this… thing.

"Yes of course. Where are my manners? I—" it flashed from the base of the broken fountain up onto its cracked top, "am Maelstrom." It gave Jack a mock bow. Lightning streaked through the sky above them, briefly illuminating the parts of the courtyard that were hidden from the light of the monster itself. A small fire began in the building that Will had been running across.

Jack's mind raced. "How do you do." How could he beat this thing and get his friends out of here? "You know that a maelstrom is a whirlpool and not a storm, right? Mal-storm might better suit you."

"How very rude to mock my name when you haven't given yours." The undertone of malice in the monster's voice was unmistakable. Another snide comment and Jack might find himself blasted into oblivion.

_Can't contact Zordon for help. Maelstrom would hear._

"I'm the Green Ranger. How's Rita?"

Maelstrom laughed, his head and chest pulsing with light at each beat. "Busy with your yellow friend," he answered. "But you'll see him again soon enough. He has already succumbed to Rita's… _influence_."

Now it was Jack's turn to laugh. "Doubt that," he said, though he wasn't sure if he meant it.

"This city has fallen. Can't you see? You foolish Rangers are only delaying the inevitable. Once Rita establishes her stronghold here, this world will be hers for the taking."

"Then she should have picked a different town," said Jack, "because we're here, and we aren't backing down until we're dead."

Maelstrom cocked its head slightly. "I was hoping you would say that."

Faster than flesh could move, Maelstrom's arm shot into the air and back down in a sort of chopping motion. Blinding white surrounded Jack as lightning tore down from the sky and completely enveloped his body. He felt the warmth from the heat of electricity, but his muscles didn't seize.

He didn't die.

Instead, the purple-white faded to grey, and he found himself standing on a wide-open plain with a Ranger in black, and Jack knew he was experiencing his first vision of the past. He had heard the other Rangers talk of them, and it had struck him as odd that he hadn't had one yet.

Some kind of herd animal raced across the plains to find shelter from the rain, just as the Green and Black Rangers were now doing. The two of them laughed as though this was a game, and the Black Ranger said, "Do it again. One more time."

The Green Ranger pounded his fist into his palm and laughed. "Gladly!" he boomed. His voice was almost as big as he was. There was no doubt that a man so large could snap someone as slender as the Black Ranger in two if he chose. If anyone was a holder of_ Strength_, it was this guy.

The Black Ranger giggled and dropped low to the ground. The Green Ranger jogged a short distance away, focused his energy into his leg, and stomped his foot as hard as he could. The ground around him rippled in a shockwave that dissipated just before reaching the Black Ranger, and out of the ground before him popped an enormous hammer of silver, with inlays of emeralds and jade in its head and pommel.

The Ranger caught the hammer by the handle and held it straight up over his head. A bolt of lightning descended from the heavens and struck the hammer. The energy from the strike traveled down the Ranger's suit and into the ground. He lowered his hammer and chuckled.

"Want to give it a try?" he laughed, obviously unharmed.

"And get burned to a crisp?" asked the Black Ranger. "No thank you. Besides, you know I can't even lift that thing."

Jack lifted off from the plains and soared back into himself. The purple-white that enveloped his vision melted away, and he was left with a new knowledge that gave him hope. _I am immune to lightning. Power of stone and earth… I should have guessed._

Maelstrom took a step back and nearly toppled off the top of the fountain. "That should have killed you," it said in its strange dry whisper.

_Now_, thought Jack, _let's see what else I can do…_

He focused all his might into his leg, just as the old Green Ranger had done, and slammed it into the ground, causing a shockwave to roll through the courtyard and a hammer to leap into the air before him. He snatched the massive weapon and pointed it at Maelstrom like some baseball player calling out his next home run. "Rita underestimated us. In her ten-thousand years, I guess she's forgotten what we Power Rangers can do."

"You so-called Power Rangers are nothing compared to her. I will kill you and bring your worthless power coin to Rita, and then I will rain destruction upon your pathetic city!"


	35. Episode 7 Ch 4 Pain

Episode 7, Chapter 4 – Ewan

His body slammed into the ground just as the other human did. Goldar laughed and reached for another slave. He grabbed her by the throat and thrust her flailing body over the edge of the roof. "You are nothing, Yellow Ranger!" he called to Ewan for the thousandth time. Ewan hung suspended in the air next to the slave in Goldar's grasp. When Goldar let the slave go – for it was a question of when, not if – Ewan knew he would fall with her and experience the excruciating pain of hitting pavement from ten stories up. Unlike the slave, though, Ewan would not die but instead would teleport back to whatever new hell Goldar had in store for his body.

_This is just a vision, _Ewan reminded himself._ This is the Dark Dimension. Goldar's not really killing these people. He's just trying to get into my head…_

Rita must have been so sure that she was going to turn Ewan to her side through the awesome power of sex, but Ewan, surprising both Rita and himself, had refused, and now Rita was acting as though she didn't have a Plan B. Simply torturing Ewan seemed curiously shallow for a ten-thousand-year-old witch.

"You can suck my Ranger balls, Gold-ass!" shouted Ewan.

Goldar's right eye briefly extinguished itself in a mocking wink, then he released the slave. Ewan fell with her, the girl's scream nearly deafening him until they both hit the ground with a bone-crunching thud. The girl's neck snapped, and Ewan was sure that his did as well, the pain was so intense, but once his vision came back to him, there he was, standing with Goldar, only this time they were on a stage in a large theatre. A line of people, bruised and bleeding and wearing clothes that looked ready to fall off their broken bodies in a moment's notice, snaked onto the stage from the audience. Sitting center-stage was a guillotine. One look at the blade suspended over the chopping block told Ewan all he needed to know: the blade was dull. This would be painful.

"Do not insult me again, Yellow Ranger," growled Goldar. "You pathetic worm. Your defiance only brings you and the people of Cedar Grove more pain and suffering."

"Your face is what brings me pain and suffering."

Goldar snarled and shoved the first person in line towards the guillotine. The man collapsed across the chopping block, and without waiting another second Goldar pulled the rope that released the blade. It fell straight down and ploughed through the slave's back and ribs. He cried out for only a moment before he died, but Ewan, feeling the blade punch through his own back, reeled from the torment for what felt like hours of searing pain. Every fiber of his being cried out for the pain to stop, and deep in the back of his mind he felt the presence of a voice encouraging him to hand Goldar his power coin and save himself and all these people. He tried to tell the voice that it was lying, but the pain prevented him from thinking even that much.

Something cracked against his face repeatedly. Ewan could not defend against whatever was hitting him, but as the blows kept coming, the pain from the phantom cuts through his back and torso lessened. He heard a voice say something to Goldar, and the hits stopped altogether. Ewan slumped to the floor and lay there for a moment. The sudden absence of pain, after enduring it for so long, was like a breath of air after being held underwater. Hell, it was a better feeling than _sex_.

"You Rangers are absolute fools," said Goldar, "and you must be the greatest of all of them. You have no chance of victory, and your stubbornness is costing countless human lives. Observe the consequences of your actions…"

A vision played before Ewan's eyes no matter where he looked. He was in the police station. April and Jess were escorting a group of officers out of the building. April was limping. _This must have been after I left them_, Ewan realized.

Something attacked from the shadows, and a fight broke out between the Rangers and what Ewan eventually recognized as Scorpina. April used water from a broken water fountain to blast Jess out the door, but Scorpina took the opportunity to strike April several times with her stingers. The Ranger crumpled, and the vision faded.

Ewan was horrified. It looked unmistakably like April had been killed. Those stingers had gone deep, and she had been hit so many times…

"That Ranger would still be alive were it not for you," said Goldar, and Ewan knew that it was the truth. "You don't deserve to be a Ranger, and now you're the only one left. Without you, your friends have buckled under our might."

A new vision flashed before him, one full of lightning and wind. Will and Jess were each blasted off of rooftops and buried under rubble, and a strange lightning monster unleashed one final strike that fully engulfed Jack's body, leaving only charred remains.

"Your human spirit was your downfall," laughed Goldar. "You rushed headlong into our awesome power. Zordon's supposed virtues have failed him, and soon we will discover the location of his Command Center and rip it apart. Then, we shall rule this Earth. The entire galaxy will soon be within our grasp!"

Ewan lacked the strength to stand and look Goldar in the eye. At least they were back in the black prison with the fog on the ground. It almost felt like home after all the visions of death Ewan had just been flung through. He climbed to one knee an glared at the stupid flaming demon-monkey.

"Hey, when you fart, does fire shoot out of your ass?"

Goldar crossed his arms. "You do have some spirit, I'll give you that. I'm willing to make you a deal, Ranger. Give me your power coin, and I promise that we will not kill anyone else who does not fight back."

The sudden turn caught Ewan totally by surprise. If Goldar was telling the truth, then perhaps his mother would be alright. He figured he was a dead man either way he looked at it, but if Ewan could go down knowing that he saved the rest of Cedar Grove from death at the hands of these freaks…

It was tempting. No doubt about that.

Goldar grinned that jack-o-lantern grin of his. "Decide quickly, Ranger, for I need to return to the city. Your friends may be dead, but there is still some… resistance… that I need to take care of. You can save them though, if you act quickly. So what's it going to be? Die here, alone, and I get to cut that power coin off your cold, dead body, or give it to me freely, and save the lives of thousands. Time's wasting, Yellow Ranger, and with each second you hesitate, I promise to behead two more of you worthless humans. Heh heh heh…"


	36. Episode 7 Ch 5 Rain Down

Episode 7, Chapter 5 – Jess

Jess awoke to the sound of an alarm beeping, and for the second time that night she felt as though she were waking from the most surreal dream of her life.

There was a thunderstorm outside her room, and its many cracks and booms were so intensely close that she thought for a moment that her entire house would soon catch fire. She tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but her body refused to move.

Her alarm beeped at her again, and slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes. She swore when she realized that, again, she hadn't been dreaming, but a peal of thunder drowned her curse out.

Her Ranger suit greeted her by superimposing a full diagnostic scan on her vision, which seemed to be mostly that of the inside of a rundown old building. Her scan told her that she had some impressive bruising all around her chest and some burns on her arms from getting struck by lightning, but the suit had taken most of the blast, so she survived. She didn't even remember getting hit by lightning, but it didn't surprise her in the slightest. Hell, with the way things were going tonight, she wouldn't have been the least bit shocked to see fucking _Godzilla_ show up downtown.

Her body aching, she pushed some debris off her chest, pulled herself to her feet, and told her suit to stop beeping in her ear. It flashed some warning about future lightning strikes, but she wasn't about to let _that_ happen to her again.

She was in some kind of office – a professor's, by the looks of it. Papers were scattered about, and a bookshelf had collapsed under some broken pieces of ceiling. Jess looked up and found her entrance: a large hole that had been blasted from the roof. That must have been some lightning strike. Even as she looked, a flash lit the clouds and, briefly, the room around her.

_Damn it's dark_, thought Jess. The suit was the only thing keeping her from being completely blind. For a moment, she wondered what it must be like to be one of the citizens of Cedar Grove: alone, in the dark, possibly injured, definitely scared out of their minds.

She leapt out of the hole in the ceiling and landed on the roof, where she crouched low and tried to get a hold of her surroundings. They were at the north end of campus. Psychology buildings, she thought. She hadn't spent much time up here herself – the radio-television-film majors had most of their classes further south – but she had taken an intro course up here a year or two ago. Fucking nuts, the lot of them. The only psychology students she knew were only taking those courses so that they could figure out what had made them all so fucked up.

Storm clouds blocked the moon and stars, and the power to the city was, of course, still completely out. She could see the glow of fires throughout downtown, and when she turned to search the courtyard below, she noticed the building across the way sported a small fire of its own, making the building look like some weird five-storey jack-o-lantern.

She tried to scan for the other Rangers, but her HUD shorted out and began showing her readings of the current barometric pressure, temperature, wind currents, likelihood of rain – _Stop, stop stop! Where are my friends?_

A fresh blast of lightning answered that for her. A pair of figures flew out of a freshly-made hole in one of the buildings and tumbled together through the remains of the courtyard's central fountain, where Professor Cranston lay. Jess' suit was in such a state that she couldn't scan the professor to see if he was still alive, but she had to hope for the best.

The Green Ranger was the first to his feet. In his hands was a huge silver hammer, which he held before him like a shield. The other creature more or less teleported onto its feet and thrust its hand forward. An arc of lightning leapt from his hand towards Jack, but the hammer's head caught the force of the bolt and forced it down into the ground, where it dissipated. Jack swung his weapon, but the lightning-man ducked under the hammer and tried to zap the Ranger again, with the same result as before.

Jess was about to send her brother some happy thoughts, but motion at the edge of her vision stopped her. In the light of the monster's attacks, Jess could see a stream of mudmen trickling around the building with the fire inside. They'd be on Jack and the professor in seconds if Jess didn't do something.

Her suit was still shorting out, which worried her. She wouldn't admit it to any of the others – least of all Jack – but fighting scared the shit out of her. She was concerned about her own safety, of course, but more than anything she didn't know what she would do if something happened to Jack. With her parents being the fuck-ups they were, he had been the only one around that she could rely on to keep a sane head. When she had found her girlfriend cheating on her – with a _man_, for Christ's sake! – Jack had kept Jess from taking her own life as well as those of Jess' old flame and the bitch's new fuckbuddy, too. Without him to keep her in line, she knew, she'd go insane.

In the moment that she leapt, Jess imagined April's body lying deathly still on the table in the Command Center, with Scorpina's barbs still sticking out of her body and the black venom creeping through her veins. That scared her more than anything.

_It will not happen again_, she promised.

Something about the flames inside the building in front of her called to Jess, and she remembered that hers was the Power over fire. She was pretty sure she had seen the mudmen step through fire before, but if nothing else she could use it to distract them. As she fell through the air, she let the suit take over. She reached towards the flames and pulled her hand back, and in response a red-hot jet blasted through a window and knocked several mudmen to the ground. Jess landed feet first on the head of another and yanked her arm sideways. The jet of flame spun around her body and then cracked like a whip against the line of incoming mudmen. Several crumbled to dust under the attack, but more sprinted round the corner and came at her with hands formed into blades and clubs.

Jess let the fire settle on the ground around her to form a circle of flame with her in the center. Mudmen prowled around the edge, occasionally sticking an arm into the flames to see what would happen. The result was always the same: the arm cracked and dried until it fell off entirely. Jess could only assume that under her control – not Rita's – fire could harm the mudmen. She grinned and pushed the edges of her fire circle out, catching some mudmen unawares and making the rest leap back in surprise.

"Red!" Jack shouted. Jess turned and squinted to see her brother through the fire. The lightning monster had knocked him aside and was raising a hand towards her.

Jess dove out of the way, but a wall of stone erupted between her and the monster and took the brunt of the lightning attack. She leapt to her feet and dared a glance around the new rock wall. Jack had created it, she knew, and now he had regained the monster's attention. The creepy thing looked pissed, that was for sure.

_Thanks_, Jess thought.

_He can read our thoughts_, said Jack. _Be careful._

The thought unsettled Jess, but she had little time to worry since the mudmen were now throwing each other over the fire wall and into her circle of death.

It was only a matter of knocking the idiots into the wall, and down they went. In her element, so to speak, Jess was Queen. She reached into the wall and flung a pillar of flame at the line of mudmen racing towards her, and they crumbled to dust. She turned the pillar and arced it over the wall, and more mudmen on the outside fell. She didn't even needed her pistol. She had mastered the flame.

As the last mudman fell, Jess snapped her finger and sent all of the fire back into the building next to her, but a thought – more of a _feeling_, really – nagged at her, like she might have been able to simply make the fire disappear rather than send it back to its original source. Could her control of fire also include being able to snuff it out completely?

She returned her attention to Jack, who still battled to lightning monster near the fountain. The two seemed to be at an impasse: Jack's hammer was too big and slow, and lightning seemed to have no effect on the Green Ranger suit whatsoever. But while the lightning-monster looked as quick as he had been minutes ago, Jack was clearly beginning to tire. If the Rangers didn't win soon, they might not beat this thing at all.

Jess remembered that the professor was lying near the base of the fountain and decided that the action was a little too close to him for her liking. She made a break for him and prayed to God that Jack would keep her safe from the lightning. Bolts of purple and white raced all around her, leaving the air smelling strangely metallic. The monster yelled in a voice like thunder, but Jack kept him away from his sister.

Jess slide baseball-style under one last bolt and stopped by the professor's side. He was alive but unconscious, so she scooped him into her arms and ran zig-zag across the courtyard to carry him to safety, dodging lightning blasts both from the monster and from the sky all the while. She rounded the side of the building, made sure no mudmen were nearby, and carefully placed the professor's body behind a bush.

When she returned to the courtyard, however, a new scene met her.

Somewhere in the fight, two mudmen must have slipped past her, for now the lightning-monster stood between them, their bladed arms aimed straight at the throat of Jack, who was on his hands and knees at the monster's feet.

"Another step," the monster promised, "and both of you die."

"Red I need you to listen to me—" Jack started, but one of the mudmen shut him up with the flat of his blade.

"Now," continued the monster, "the Putties and I are reasonable creatures. You have something our mistress wants, and we have your lives. I see a trade in our future, don't you?"

"Putties?" Jess laughed, though inside she was terrified almost to the point of fainting. "They're seriously called Putties? And what do we call you? Bolty?"

"I am Maelstrom," the monster said, though there was a certain warning in his voice that told Jess to back off before either she or Jack lost their "twin" status.

"And what is it that you want, _Maelstrom_?"

"Your professor, for a start," he said. "For a human, he is rather brilliant. We could use him for our mistress' new… _project_."

Jess didn't miss the delight in Maelstrom's voice at that word. _Project_. They would use Dr. Cranston for some sick experiment. Jess didn't particularly care what it might be, but somehow she figured that the professor would rather not be a part of it.

"And should we refuse?" Jess asked.

Maelstrom reached towards one of the mudmen – er, _Putties_ – and sent a small spark into its head. Its arm spasmed up and back down in a flash. Jack crumpled onto his side, and Jess' HUD showed that the Green Ranger had taken a deep cut to his left bicep.

Jess' heart pounded in her throat. She could not lose her brother, but what choice did they have? She had seen no sign of Will since she had been knocked out; it would be silly to try to count on him now. And Jess' Ranger suit was fast, but not fast enough to dodge lightning. Maelstrom kept one arm raised towards her. He smiled as Jack tried to push himself back onto his knees.

"I don't care whether you live or die," the monster said. "But the mistress does, and I'm sure you do, too. Give up the human, Rangers. What does he mean to you, anyway?"

Though Jess' HUD continued to short in and out, it picked up movement from Jack's sliced arm. Blood had dripped down from his bicep to his fingers, and he was using it to write something on the ground: _DPF_.

The twins had long ago created a coded message system for each other so that one could alert the other of trouble at home, which was usually the case. If one or both of their parents were in particularly foul moods, if they were drunk, or coked out, or had just been fired, then the first twin home would leave messages outside the house for the second, be it with twigs on the porch, or small magnets on the mailbox, or, once they got cell phones, through text messages.

_DPF: danger, prepare for fight._

Jess might have burst out laughing if she hadn't been so scared. _And I thought I was the one with courage_, she thought.

Jack answered Maelstrom's question by slamming his good arm into the ground. It sank into a widening crater that sent ripples through the ground around them. The two Putties lost their balance and tumbled over, but the lightning-monster stayed upright. Before Maelstrom could zap her, Jess leapt to the side and again let her suit focus on the flames within the building to her left. She gripped at the heart of the fire and tugged, and a jet of flame snaked out of the building and towards the fountain.

"What do you want me to d—" she started to yell, but the sight of what Jack had done cut her off.

In the span of just a few seconds, he had manipulated the earth, just as she had done with fire, until he had formed tight cocoons around the Putties and Maelstrom. The outlines of each monster were clearly visible, like someone had frozen them in carbonite.

"Make it as dry as you can!" Jack shouted back. The strain in his voice told Jess all she needed to know: he wouldn't be able to hold this for long. Maelstrom and the Putties were fighting back.

Jess twirled the flames around each of the three cocoons to try to evaporate any water still trapped within the earth. Soon, steam lifted from the courtyard, but fresh claps of thunder above threatened to rain hell upon their plans.

As she moved the flames, Jess walked forward until she stood level with her brother. "You had better know what you're doing," she said.

"He's lightning," answered Jack. "If we ground him and dry out the air around him, he should die."

Privately, Jess wished Dr. Cranston was conscious so that he could tell them if Jack's plan would work, but she would have to trust that her brother really was as smart as he was supposed to be.

She kept the fire at the base of the cocoons until Jack said something else. Even though they were standing so close together, she had to yell at him to say whatever it was again so that she could hear over the storm.

"_I said, get the fire over the tombs; it's about to rain!_"

Jess swore and moved the serpent of flame into the air, and not a moment too soon, for fat drops of rain began to pelt her face. A few seconds later, her HUD kindly informed her that it was raining.

Dust shook off Maelstrom's cocoon, and a sound not unlike thunder echoed through the courtyard. Jack fell to one knee. Jess' HUD reported that Jack's power was draining quickly, and that if they didn't snuff out this electric asshole soon then the strain would kiss Jack – _no_, Jess thought, _kill Jack. God damned suit. Alpha better be able to fix this damn thing._

They could hear screaming over the thunderstorm. All three monsters were pushing Jack to his limits, but his cocoons held. First one Putty's prison and then the other caved in and crumbled to dust. With all his attention now on Maelstrom, Jack gave one final shout and tightened his fist into a ball. There was a clap of thunder unlike any Jess had heard before, and Maelstrom's cocoon caved in on itself with a tiny dust implosion.

Jack fell onto his side. Jess clinched her own fist, and the fire serpent keeping the rain away dissolved completely. She fell and lay beside her brother. Neither said a word. They were too exhausted, and the rain felt wonderfully cool on their aching bodies.

Her brother was safe. They still might not survive this nightmare, but for now, she had saved the one she loved the most.


	37. Episode 8 Ch 1 Can't Save Them All

Episode 8, Chapter 1 – Will

Will awoke to the sound of beeping in his ear and the touch of water on his face. He groaned and dragged himself off his side and onto his knees. That lightning blast had really done a number on his suit. His heads up display flashed in and out of his vision. He felt sluggish. His body ached. But even though it was pitch-black around him, he could see just fine.

The blast had knocked him clear off the roof of the psychology building, so that now he lay hidden behind a line of bushes along the building's front. He climbed to his feet and observed the carnage. The courtyard had been almost completely destroyed during some fight that Will must have missed. Curved lines of black criss-crossed the grass in ugly scars. Through a hole in the wall, he could see a fire growing within the psychology building. The stone path around the fountain was shattered, and the fountain itself was all but obliterated.

The Red and Green Rangers lay on its remains.

Will raced to their sides even though the sudden movement made him go light-headed. "Guys!" he called as he slid to their sides. Rain trickled down the fountain rubble and puddled around the two Rangers. "Hey, wake up!"

"Ugh," Jess mumbled. "Not so loud."

Relief surged through Will. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Jess said, though she wasn't very convincing.

_Zordon, _thought Will, _do you know what happened here? Where's the professor?_

_ Your fellow Rangers fought an extremely dangerous foe, _said Zordon._ They have hidden Professor Cranston in the bushes to the east of you._

_ Is it safe to teleport everyone out of here?_

_ Yes. I will use my Power to bring you all back to the Command Center._

Will stood._ Save your strength, Zordon. I'll get myself out of here, but I don't think the others can even stand, let alone teleport. See you in a moment._

_ Understood. Safe travels, White Ranger._

The Rangers at Will's feet melted into pools of red and green and shot into the sky. To the east, a beam of grey joined them, and the three disappeared south.

Will told his suit to take him back to the Command Center, but it shorted on him, and he didn't budge. He tried again, with the same result.

_Zordon_, he thought, _come in_.

_Yes White Ranger. Is something wrong?_

_ I think the lightning did something to my suit. I can't teleport._

_ Alpha is assessing the damage to the Red Ranger suit as we speak. I will bring you back… White Ranger, shield yourself!_

Will ducked as an explosion rocked the building behind him. Debris and rain pounded the courtyard, but the biggest pieces fell harmlessly to Will's sides.

Standing atop the building, right where the explosion had hit, was Goldar.

He held the Yellow Ranger by the neck. Ewan's feet dangled five stories off the ground. He looked unconscious. Will wasn't sure, but something told him that if Ewan fell in his current state, his suit wouldn't do much to break the fall.

"Greetings, Ranger!" called Goldar. "So nice to find you all alone!"

"What do you want, Goldar?" Will called back. With every second the rain came down a little harder, and it was starting to get loud.

"A trade, White Ranger! Your puny friend here for your power coin."

Will's mind raced. Every time he tried to scan Ewan to see if he was alright, something blocked him. Rita's work, probably. If it really was Ewan, and if he really was alive, then Will could save his life. He scanned Goldar's waist for any sign of the antivenom for April, but his suit refused to enhance his vision like it used to.

"How do I know that's really him?" he asked.

Goldar laughed. "You don't! That's the fun of it! But you should be grateful, pathetic human. Queen Rita is not pleased that your friends destroyed one of her strongest lieutenants. If she wished, I could summon a hundred Putties into this courtyard and watch them tear you apart, but she has other plans for you."

_Putties?_

Will wanted to taunt Goldar for not offering to fight himself, but with Ewan hanging over the edge and a possible cure for April resting on Goldar's waist, Will didn't dare anger him further.

_Zordon, I need your help. What do I do?_

Zordon's response was slow to come, like he didn't like what he was about to say. _I cannot make this decision for you, White Ranger, and I cannot teleport you or the Yellow Ranger out of there without bringing Goldar as well._

_ I understand, Zordon._

_ May the Power protect you._

To Goldar, Will said, "If I give you my coin, what will Rita do with it?"

Goldar's cackle echoed through the courtyard. "My mistress does not reveal her plans, Ranger, and even if I did know, I would not tell you. Decide, or I take this one back to the Dark Dimension for another thousand years' worth of torment."

Will got the uneasy feeling that Goldar was telling the truth in that last sentence: that Ewan had already suffered greatly at Rita's hands. He wondered why Ewan was still in his Ranger suit and whether or not Goldar had already taken his coin. His hand itched for his pistol. Maybe, just maybe, he could surprise Goldar and somehow save Ewan and steal the antivenom.

But even as he thought this, his HUD faded from his sight and did not come back. No, there would be no surprise. To attack Goldar right now would mean certain death for Will and probably Ewan as well. April wouldn't get her antivenom, and then the twins would be on their own.

Will couldn't save everyone. And right now, there was only one option, a desperate plan that Will _had_ to believe in.

He focused on his hand, and a golden coin shimmered into his palm. The lion engraved on the face roared up at him.

Will held the coin over his head. "Alright Goldar, you have a deal!"

"Heh heh heh! Rita was wrong about you humans; some of you _are_ reasonable! Throw your coin to me, and I'll give you back your foolish friend."

Will hesitated. He hoped this plan would work. If this failed, he and the others were doomed.

"Catch!" he shouted.

He flung his coin high into the air. Goldar immediately dropped Ewan, spread his black wings, and leapt after the coin. Will could already feel his power leaving him, but while he still had the strength he reached into his belt and threw a patch of white mesh onto the ground under Ewan, just as he and the others had when they had saved that helicopter pilot and his cameraman earlier that evening. That all seemed so long ago. Will tried not to think about it. If his plan failed, then he had only been a Ranger for a few short hours. He had to hope that he was right.

Ewan landed in the meshwork and slowly touched down on solid earth. Will heard Goldar let loose a victorious howl before there was another sound like an explosion, and he was gone. Will thought he heard Zordon's voice, but it was so faint that he couldn't be sure. A moment later, his vision turned to white, and he and Ewan raced back to the Antarctic Command Center.


	38. Episode 8 Ch 2 Reflection Pool

Episode 8, Chapter 2 – April

The first thing April noticed was that she was naked.

Well, _see-through_ might be more exact, so that she figured she must have looked like some odd nudist ghost or something. Instinctively she tried to cover herself with her arms, but since they, too, were transparent, there was really little point.

The second thing she noticed was that she was home – not her mom's new house in Cedar Grove, but the one her parents had shared back in Springfield for nearly her whole life. Two stories, family photos over the fireplace, a big-screen TV with a recliner and a couch – for the casual observer, this was the very image of a perfect, loving family. But April knew better. She knew why her mother always wore long sleeves and too much base, why certain nights were best spent studying at a friend's house, why her mother kept the house looking spotless to a level that would make a hospital look like a dive bar.

To April's horror, her elder sister Lynn stormed down the stairs. Again April tried to cover herself, but Lynn took no more notice of her than if she were some cleaning product Mother had forgotten to put up. _They can't see me_, April realized.

She looked closer at Lynn and realized that there was a sort of aura within her. April knew her sister: big personality, aggressive, short-tempered. She was a lot like Jess, now that April thought of it, which would explain why Lynn looked like a walking torch, as if someone had superimposed an image of her on top of a fireplace.

April's father stormed down the stairs after Lynn, and April, despite herself, ducked behind the couch. Father looked like a bomb had detonated under his skin. His skin was charred black, and his eyes blazed like Goldar's. As Father and Lynn began to argue in the den, April realized that she was watching a scene from her memory. She stepped away from the couch and looked back at where she had hidden. There, looking like a teardrop in human form, was April, aged ten.

It was the day Lynn had run away from home.

As soon as April realized this, the scene rippled, blurred, and reformed. She was still in the living room, but now Father sat in the recliner, looking the same as he had just a moment ago. The twins screamed playfully down the stairs and out the front door, the two of them shining with a pale glow as though moonlight would burst from their pores at any moment. Father bellowed after them, and as his voice echoed around the living room it revealed April, now about fifteen, sitting quietly on the couch with a book in her hands. Ocean water filled her from head to foot, but it was cold, dark, and unwelcoming.

April couldn't remember ever sitting there while her father was home. He had always made it clear that when he was home the others were to stay out of his way. April was no fool. She had always done exactly that.

Father turned back around in his chair and regarded the April on the couch. He slammed his fist into his armrest, and for a moment Goldar sat in Father's recliner. The arm of the recliner emitted a black mist that fell to the floor and began to cover the perfectly-vacuumed carpet. Whispers filled the room, and April realized that up until now she had not heard a single sound, making the whispers seem as loud as a stadium of crazed fans.

Then Goldar flashed back to Father, and his skin was a little more charred and the bomb within him a little more volatile.

The April on the couch formed a thick layer of ice on her water's surface, and she quickly scrambled off the couch and up the stairs. The scene in the living room froze, yet black mist continued to hiss forth from Father's recliner.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

April leapt away from the voice at her side and stood with her fists raised.

But standing before her was her old gymnastics coach, looking bright and cheery as always. April couldn't help but notice, however, that within her coach was a cloudy day.

"Coach Hart!" April gasped. "What… how are you here?"

Coach Hart spread her hands. "The same way your family is here. Tell me about what you just saw."

April had absolutely no idea what she had just seen.

"I could see… auras," she said carefully.

"Mm-hmm. You could see the person for who they really are. It's a rare gift to be given, even if only for a little while."

"I don't understand."

The scene around them shifted, and as they continued to talk, April and Coach Hart found themselves in the middle of various other scenes from April's past: birthday parties, dinners, holidays – every last one of them ruined by Father.

"No matter who your family is," explained Coach Hart, "they play an important role in who you are. So tell me: what's your family like? _What do you see_?"

April watched her parents in an argument. Father looked about ready to explode, both inside and out. Mother was made of little more than smoke: insubstantial and weak, like she might snuff out at any moment.

"My… father," winced April. Just the word, _father_, was harder for her to say than she had expected. "He's… like a bomb."

Coach Hart nodded. "Mm-hmm. A domineering man and a worn out, submissive woman."

"He's abusive."

April almost felt relieved to say it. She had never named her father for what he really was, but there was no way around it. In the scene around them, a teenaged April marched right between her parents and pushed them apart. Water flowed from her arms and extinguished the flames that had risen within her father. A small fire began to kindle within her mother's breast.

"_That_ never happened," April muttered.

"Not so directly," admitted Coach Hart, "but you are a spirit of water within a family of flames. What does that tell you about yourself?"

The scene shifted to a different house. April knew it from pictures: the place her parents lived in before she was born. Baby shower decorations littered the living room, which Mother was happily admiring. She was heavily pregnant with Lynn, and within her was a fire that surprised April.

"Water surrounded by fire?" asked April. "Makes me sound like an idiot."

Father returned from work with a friend from the office. Upon seeing the mess from the shower, Father told his friend something, and the friend left the house. April knew that look in his eye. She didn't want to watch what was about to happen, not when Mother looked so _happy_.

"I wouldn't say that," said Coach Hart.

"Then what would you say?" Father removed his jacket. "That I'm smart for letting my family walk all over me? That I'm brave for having never stood up to my father? You were right: my family has shaped me. They've made me weak." Father yanked Mother off the couch and gave her a hard slap across the cheek. "I saw what happened when Lynn or Mother tried to fight back, so I never did that." This time, Father used his fists. "I tried to keep the peace in the family, and look where it got me." Father left Mother a broken mess on the couch. Black mist covered most of the floor by now. April wondered if this had really happened, or if it was just another product of Zordon's sadistic "meditation". He had mentioned something about this place being contaminated by Rita; perhaps this was it.

Coach Hart crossed her arms and tapped her feet. "You done?"

"I… yes."

"Good. Now shut up and listen." Only Coach Hart could say that and be _sweet_ about it. "You may not realize it, but you were the glue keeping your family together. You gave your mother and your sister hope that some good might yet come out of this family. You protected your little sisters, even when they didn't realize it. Without you, your family would have burned each other to ashes." The house around them burst into flames, and through the fire April could see five charred bodies on the floor. The image was almost too much for her to bear.

"You can be many things, April," Coach Hart continued. "That is the blessing and the curse of water." Now they stood atop the cliffs overlooking the lake. All of April's diving competitors stood around her, including Ewan, who looked more like a tornado in a Speedo than a human. On the observation cliff below them, April noticed a pillar of rock and a living constellation– _Jack and Will_, she realized – as well as a bonfire among the trees beyond that could only be Jess. It was so strange to see the other Rangers for what they were, yet each one made sense, as though April had known the true selves of each Ranger ever since she had first laid eyes on them.

"Diving, huh?" smiled Coach Hart. "Not a far cry from gymnastics. I bet the transition wasn't hard for you."

"No," April admitted. "I just used what you had taught me."

"Only you learned to land on your head instead of your feet." The two laughed as the first diver leapt from the cliff. The competition fast-forwarded around them. Compared to the scenes from home, this one was downright relaxing. April didn't even mind that she was naked anymore.

"So you're saying that I can be what I want to be," said April as time slowed down again and Ewan made his perfect dive.

"Absolutely," said Coach Hart. "None of the others have such limitless possibilities as you. Your Power chose you right: _Harmony_, able to get along with anyone, see anyone's point of view. And, hey, being able to manipulate anything liquid is pretty cool too, right?"

"Liquid? You mean, not just water?"

"Well, there needs to be some water in there, but yeah, pretty much!"

All hell broke loose around them. The sky went black, far blacker than it had in real life. Black mist rained all around them. Lightning struck, and earthquakes ripped the ground apart. Will fell off his cliff, and April knew that it was her time to go.

"Thanks for the help, Coach," she said.

Coach Hart beamed at her. "Any time, kiddo. You've got a long journey ahead of you. Don't lose yourself in the Dark Dimension."

"The what?"

But it was too late. April, guided by the April from just hours before, leapt from the cliff, twirled through the air, and plummeted through the dark mist.


	39. Episode 8 Ch 3 Tainted Spirit

Episode 8, Chapter 3 – Dr. Cranston

"Hey. Nerd human. Wake up."

"Alpha, come on. He just got struck by lightning. Give the professor a break."

"Please; he didn't get struck by lightning. He'd be dead. The bespeckled little bastard took a hard fall when Captain Hammer over here got struck. Come on Billy buddy, time to get your ass up. We got work to do."

Bill felt a gloved hand tap the side of his face. He frowned and swatted it away.

The hand felt like it was made of metal.

Bill opened his eyes and hauled himself to a sitting position. Someone handed him his glasses. He pushed them up his nose, and into his vision came a lion roaring from the center of white armor. Bill looked up, and a pair of misty white lights stared back at him: a Power Ranger.

"Easy, professor," said the Ranger in white. "You took quite a knock to the head."

"He'll be fine," said the other voice from before. "Professor, how do you feel about building a machine that transports a feeble human consciousness to a dimension of infinite darkness?"

"I…" Bill felt like he'd just been run over by a herd of cattle. His body ached, and his eyes refused to focus on the room beyond the white Power Ranger. He tried to process the question, but it slipped from his memory before he could answer.

"Oh!" mocked the metallic voice behind Bill. "So eloquent! So Shakespearian! Speak, oh wordsmith of the ages. Speak once more, so that our ears may be blessed by the gift of your loquaciousness!"

"Alpha," warned the White Ranger. "Lighten up. Professor, can you stand?"

Bill wasn't so sure, but he nodded anyway. His head pounded. He had only been drunk once, but this felt a lot like the hangover he'd suffered afterwards. He slumped off the side of the bed. The White Ranger caught his arm and began to lead him into the middle of the room.

"Where… are we?" Bill asked.

"Our Command Center," said the Ranger. "This is where our leader lives. Zordon, I'd like for you to meet Dr. Bill Cranston."

"It is an honor, Dr. Cranston," boomed a deep voice. It reminded Bill of his grandfather. "I am Zordon, protector of Earth for untold millennia, and these are my Power Rangers."

Bill let go of the White Ranger's arm and leaned against a console. He glanced at the technology spread out before him – wondrous science that had to be several centuries ahead of anything ever even imagined by humans. Bill could have spent weeks studying just one of the control panels, and this room had hundreds. But Bill knew that he hadn't been brought here to study.

"Zordon," he said, "you're not human." It wasn't a question.

"No, I am not. My Rangers are, however, and they need your help."

"If you think you can manage." There was that metallic voice again. Bill turned to look back at the alcove where he had awoken. There, standing in front of four occupied beds, was…

"Wow!" Bill couldn't help himself. "A fully sentient, multifunctional automaton!"

"God damn," said the robot, "you nerds all speak the same language."

"That's Alpha 5," said the White Ranger. "You'll… get used to him."

Bill glanced past Alpha 5. "The other Rangers," he said. The Green and Red Rangers who had helped him at the university lay on medical beds next to another Ranger in yellow. A fourth bed appeared to hold a young woman, but the lights were dark around her, and Bill could make out no details other than a feminine form.

"Yes," said the White Ranger. "The five of us are all there is standing between Rita and world domination." Bill listened in silence while the White Ranger explained what had happened to Cedar Grove during this horrific Fourth of July. He began to realize just how lucky he was to still be alive. He wondered if any of his old friends still living in Cedar Grove were alright, too. But when the White Ranger got to the part about dark energy and dark matter, Bill nearly lost it. Years of research validated in the flash of an instant. Bill would have danced with joy if the world wasn't on the verge of hostile takeover. The White Ranger, however, did not share his happiness.

"Zordon," said the White Ranger, "I… I gave Goldar my power coin. I did what I thought was right, but Goldar tricked us."

"Indeed he has," said Zordon. "He returned the Yellow Ranger's body to us, but his consciousness remains trapped in Rita's Dark Dimension."

"The place created by dark energy and dark matter," said Bill.

"Yes," said the Ranger. "Our friend's mind is trapped there. We need you to help us build a machine that can transport our minds there so that we can rescue him."

"That is… not exactly true," said Zordon.

The White Ranger wheeled around and stared at the large tank of what looked like bioluminescent milk. "What do you mean? We're just going to give up on Ew—"

"White Ranger," said Zordon. The liquid in the tank rippled when the voice spoke, and Bill realized that Zordon must be inside that tank. "I have not been completely truthful with you or the other Rangers, and for that I am sorry."

"What are you talking about?"

"Shortly before Rita was unleashed upon this world, I discovered that traces of her corruption remained within one of the Power essences. I am afraid that I did not have time to cleanse it before the attack, but with some careful coordination I have created an opportunity for the darkness to be cleansed from within."

"So what are you saying, exactly? Which power was tainted?"

"_Spirit_, White Ranger. I knew that the Yellow Ranger would fall to Rita's influence within the police station, just as I knew that the poison from Scorpina – the old Yellow Ranger – might taint a second Ranger. That it would ultimately be the Blue Ranger was both better and worse than I had anticipated, for she has much conflict within her. If she can overcome herself, then she will be a much stronger ally."

"You're saying you sent us to the police station _knowing_ that he would be captured?" The White Ranger slammed a gloved fist on the console before him, and for just a moment his armor flickered and a college-aged kid stood in his place. He looked tired. "Why would you lie to us?"

"Now that the essence of _Spirit_ is within the Yellow Ranger, he must cleanse it himself, and do you truly believe that he would be capable of doing so if I had been truthful with him from the beginning? If I had _ordered_ him to do it?"

The White Ranger didn't answer, but it looked like much of his anger had subsided. Bill was growing more and more curious about these Rangers by the minute. The boy who had stood in the White Ranger's place had looked like he could be one of Bill's students, and the girl on the medical bed – the Blue Ranger, Bill guessed – looked no older.

_They're just kids_, Bill thought. He tried to imagine his college-aged self being a Power Ranger. Of everything he had heard tonight, that thought was by far the most outrageous.

"The Yellow Ranger can prevail over the darkness," continued Zordon. "And he is not alone. Scorpina's sting passed the taint of _Spirit_ into the Blue Ranger. This allowed me to slip her mind into the Dark Dimension. Should she and the Yellow Ranger succeed, they can escape and return to us, thus freeing the Yellow Ranger of his corruption and at the same time expelling Scorpina's poison from the Blue Ranger's body."

"So in the end they can save themselves," said the White Ranger. "And we can't do anything."

"No, White Ranger. By offering your power coin to Goldar, your essence of _Honor_ will grant your friends aid in the Dark Dimension. I will speak to you more on this matter later, but for now know that your actions may prove to be the tipping point in your friends' upcoming battle."

The White Ranger didn't look convinced. "God, Zordon, then why the hell did you send us after Professor Cranston? Red and Green almost died! Hell, we _all_ nearly did! Why'd we bring him here?"

"Dr. Cranston's expertise on dark energy and dark matter will be key in aiding us with a more urgent matter. Dr. Cranston, I have been watching your scientific progress for some time. There is no other human on Earth more qualified for this task than you are."

"You've been watching me?" asked Bill. He had never seen himself as particularly important. Smart, sure, at least for some random dork from Angel Grove… back when it _was_ Angel Grove. What kind of city council decides to change the city's name? Seriously.

"Yes," said Zordon. "Your understanding of dark matter is unparalleled. Rita Repulsa draws the vast majority of her minions from the Dark Dimension. I believe that you and Alpha 5 can work together to build a machine that will prevent her from calling forth more monsters. Without your help, I fear that my Rangers may be overwhelmed by sunrise. I realize that this will be no easy task, but—"

"I'm in." No more hesitation. Bill could help save the world. He was the only one who could.

_Trini, if you're up there, I hope I make you proud._


	40. Episode 8 Ch 4 Hope

Episode 8, Chapter 4 – Ewan

He was actually getting used to seeing the citizens of Cedar Grove dying horrible deaths, and that scared him more than anything. Scorpina paraded the visions before him like it was some sick class on the history of gruesome executions, and each one seemed nastier than the last. Yet something was slightly off about them: something about the way the people were a little _too_ terrified, or how they cried out for someone to save them a little _too_ often. Rita might be trying to guilt-trip him like his mother always would. That thought alone gave Ewan hope that these deaths were not really happening.

He _had_ to hope they were fake. He had nothing else. If his refusal to give Goldar his power coin really was causing so many innocents to die, Ewan would rather be the next in line than have to live with the knowledge that he had brought so much misery to his hometown .

_You didn't cause this_, he reminded himself. _Rita did, and Goldar and Scorpina, and you'll take those assholes down before the end… even if you have to do it alone._

He pulled against his chains, but they held fast. He was getting sick of the way time moved in the Dark Dimension. He had stood chained to this pole for what felt like days now. He had no idea whether his friends were alright, but again, he had to hope. It was all he had.

_Hope_. Ewan started to laugh. Ever since puberty his mom had called him a "lost cause", "god-forsaken", "hopeless". He had done countless things he now regretted. He had been arrested, seen friends overdose, slept with girls he didn't even know. He'd always seen himself as the perfect package of _wrong_. His mom had been right: he was hopeless. Yet here he was, clinging to hope as a life preserver in this place of darkness. The irony was so thick he could taste it. So he laughed.

The vision of a young woman being ripped in half faded and was replaced by Scorpina in her super-sexy form, but this time the see-through dress and the cannonball breasts didn't even faze Ewan.

"You're finally starting to crack," sneered Scorpina. "Give me your power coin, and I'll make it worth your while." She slipped a strap off her shoulder, but where once Ewan had found her nearly irresistible, now she just looked desperate.

"I don't even want to know what kinds of STIs I'd get from a ten-thousand year-old bitch like you," said Ewan. "I mean, come on. You probably have fangs down there. Tell me, seriously, how did a Power Ranger ever fall as far as you?"

Scorpina's bombshell disguise vanished, and her tail-stinger flashed to Ewan's throat. She looked pissed.

"You mock me?" she whispered.

"All day, sweetheart."

She placed her stinger over Ewan's heart and began to push. Ewan fought to keep from screaming, but his suit did little to slow it.

"I care not for Rita's plan," she spat. "I will kill you here, and I won't even use venom to do it. I want to feel my stinger pierce your heart. Your body will awaken in your precious little Command Center, but it will be a mindless husk. I doubt your friends will even notice the difference."

_My body's in the Command Center? _Despite the stinger against his chest, he laughed again._ Thanks for the extra hope, Scorpina._

"You know, yellow really isn't your color." Scorpina's stinger broke skin, but Ewan had to keep talking. If he was about to die, he might as well go down in a blaze of defiance. "It… clashes with your skin. Maybe you… ngh… should have been the Blue Ranger… instead."

"Do not compare me to such a weak human. Your Blue Ranger was the first to die, and now, you will be the last."

"Think again."

Something like a javelin punched into Scorpina's side and took both her and her stinger of Ewan's vision. From the direction of the javelin came perhaps the last thing Ewan had expected to see: the Blue Ranger herself. Without a word she reached behind him with her pistol and shot the chains from his arms. He slumped forward, and she caught him over her shoulder. His arms burned from being tied in place for so long, but the Blue Ranger's hold soothed his pain.

Then Ewan realized that he was still in the Dark Dimension. This had to be another vision. Rita was fucking with him again.

He shoved the fake Blue Ranger away and raised his fists.

"Wait, what…" said the Blue Ranger.

"Nice try Rita," Ewan grinned, "but I'm done with your illusions!" He leapt forward and sunk his fist into the side of the Blue Ranger's hood. The imposter didn't even dodge. She just sat there and took the hit, looking too stunned to even move. But Ewan had the upper hand now, and he wouldn't go down without a fight. Hope was all he had in this dark place. He was alone; there was nothing else.


	41. Episode 8 Ch 5 Mist

Episode 8, Chapter 5 – April

She should have expected that.

Of course Ewan would think she was some sick vision of the Dark Dimension. The problem was, how would she convince him that she was real? She'd have thought that the trident in Scorpina's side would have been a clue. This place must have really messed with Ewan's mind.

April recovered and faced the Yellow Ranger. "Listen to me," she said. "I am not an illusion!"

_If any of the others were here they'd be able to tell him something from his past that Rita wouldn't know, but I just met this guy today…_

Ewan charged.

April dodged his attacks, but for someone who had just spent the past few hours being tortured in another dimension, Ewan was fast. She ducked a right hook, leaned out of the way of an uppercut, and leapt backwards to avoid a side kick.

"It really is me," she pleaded. "We just met today. No one from Elm to Circle, right? Speedos, bullshit? Come on, don't do this."

Ewan paused. April dared a glance at Scorpina, who was busy dragging herself up from the mist that clung to the floor. To April's horror, she was laughing despite her wounds.

"Do you like her, Yellow Ranger?" Scorpina cooed. "After I killed her, my venom brought her body under my spell. She is mine, and now she will help me kill you."

"No!" April shouted. She wanted her trident back, but she couldn't see it under the mist.

She slid her pistol from her holster. Ewan crouched to dodge the shot, but April aimed at Scorpina and fired.

The blue bolt fizzled into nothing before it reached her.

"What the…" Ewan muttered. April wanted to contact him mentally, but she was afraid of what the Dark Dimension might do. Would it open up their minds to Scorpina's, or Rita's? She couldn't afford to risk it if there was an alternative. She just had to figure out what that might be.

"Please," she begged. "You have to believe me. Your friends are alive. All of them." She hoped Ewan would pick up on the fact that she said "your" and not "our". She was the outsider in this group, and as much as she hated reminding herself of that, she had to use it now to try to get through to him. "Red and I got the police out of the station. And remember the two campus police we saw before that?" She wished she could remember their names; one had been very fat and the other very skinny, but the only names she could think of were Laurel and Hardy, and the two cops definitely weren't _them_.

Scorpina limped towards them. She tried to hide her wound, but the pain on her face was obvious. April's trident had done some damage through that golden armor.

"My venom runs within your veins," said Scorpina. "My power over your mind is strong."

April holstered her pistol. It would do no good here. "I'll show you strong."

She leapt at the monster and kicked, but the Dark Dimension slowed her down, and Scorpina easily dodged. The monster giggled. "Confused, Yellow Ranger?" she called. April attacked again with a roundhouse kick. Scorpina wrapped her tail-like stinger around April's leg and whipped her into the ground. The mist swirled around her. It wafted into her hood, and suddenly she could hear Scorpina's voice in her head.

_I see you now, Blue Ranger_, she said. _My venom shows me the struggles you have endured to reach this place. You will not escape Rita's Dark Dimension alive!_

April was yanked to her feet. Out of the mist, the Dark Dimension had completely changed. Where once she had been inside Ewan's minimalist prison, now April was back in her old house, only half of it had burned to the ground. Fire had scorched the walls black and reduced all the furniture to cinders. Ash choked the air. There was no ceiling but the black of the Dark Dimension.

Scorpina and Ewan were gone, but April's sister Lynn stood in the middle of the living room.

"Sister!" cried Lynn. "Father, he's…"

Father himself appeared next to Lynn and punched her in the stomach. Lynn crumpled and disappeared into the mist.

April had had it with visions of her family.

Father pulled a pistol from his back pocket. April ducked and rolled towards him as he unloaded its entire clip. She didn't think he hit her – she had had her fill with gunshot wounds for the day – but bullets wouldn't stop her from defeating him. She didn't care if he was just a vision. He was more than that here. Zordon sent her to this place to find herself, and what she had found was that April Johnson wasn't going to take any crap from anyone anymore, especially her abusive father. And if Scorpina had brought him here to mess with April's mind, then taking him down would feel that much sweeter.

Father was still reloading his gun when April landed a kick to his chest. He crashed through the charred remains of their sofa. April chased after him, but in a flash he was back on his feet with a leg of furniture in his hand. He swiped, and the wooden leg glowed from the embers still burning on its end. April fell back, and her father pressed his attack. She had expected his swings to be drunken, _wild_, but in this Dark Dimension her father was precise. He was fast. And after several swings, he landed a hit.

She felt the end of the wooden leg splinter against the side of her hood. Her house tumbled over on itself, and she fell under the mist. Her head pounded from the hits it was taking.

_Having fun?_ taunted Scorpina. _Your father and your sister… They look familiar to me. I will have the Putties search through our slave pens once I have conquered your mind. You may kill him yourself, so long as you surrender your power to us._

"G… go to hell."

Scorpina made a "tsk tsk" sound. _My dear, we are already there._

A hand gripped April and yanked her out of the mist again. Her father held her by the throat. Her feet weren't touching the ground. Father looked as he had earlier, like a bomb was exploding beneath his skin, but now his features were less human, more monstrous. His face was a blank expression, and no matter how hard she looked at him she knew that certain details were missing. His skin wasn't that smooth, and his eyes weren't quite that color. Fire glowed in his pupils. Of everything she had seen today, this demonic vision of her father terrified April the most.

He punched her in the face. Stars burst in her vision. The burned house around them flickered for just a moment.

He followed up with a hard punch in her stomach that knocked the wind out of her. She watched her breath swirl from her mouth and enter her father's. Within his body, she could see the air turn a golden yellow and begin to envelop the light from the bomb's explosion.

Father looked distracted by whatever had just happened, so April swung her legs up and wrapped them around his outstretched arm. She shifted her body weight and brought the two of them down. Her landing was rough, but now she was free from his grip.

April rolled backwards, and the two leapt to their feet. She found herself fending off attacks from three fronts: her father before her, the Dark Dimension around her, and, strangest of all, a growing suspicion within her that what she was doing was inexcusably wrong. And while it was already taking all of her brain power just to fend off both her father's punches and the Dark Dimension's slowing her down, the belief that she _shouldn't be fighting_ nagged at her more and more with each passing moment.

And all the while, the bomb and the wind raged against each other within her father.

They battled for some time. April was quickly discovering that time seemed to have a life all its own in this strange place: it moved like a tide, sometimes speeding in, sometimes ebbing out, but always changing so that you never knew if the past sixty seconds had been a minute or an hour. She didn't know how long they fought, but she felt her vision clearing with each passing moment. April began to notice little details in the house around them that she knew were false. Each one was a constant reminder that she was in the Dark Dimension, and things here were not as they seemed.

_Zordon said I am "adaptable"_, she recalled. _Maybe I can get used to the Dark Dimension faster than the other Rangers. Is that why he sent me here?_

Something golden began to flicker at the edges of her vision, and she knew that it was Scorpina. She could hear the monster whispering strange things in another tongue, but every time April tried to look directly at her or try to understand the words she said, they slipped from her thoughts, and her father would press his attack with a new intensity.

He was becoming more distorted. Though in real life Father was balding, here dark hair grew in long sheets on either side of his face, and his eyes were beginning to turn the same yellow as the fierce wind storm within him.

_Kill him here_, said Scorpina, _and you may kill him when we find him in your dimension._

Scorpina's promise appealed to the darker side of April, but she forced herself to think rationally. Why would she want to kill her father? He had done terrible things. He had all but ruined their family. But _kill_ him?

_That's not me_, she realized. _I am better than this_.

April stepped back and lowered her arms. "No," she said. "I am done with your games."

_Very well_, said Scorpina. _Kill her._

Father took a step forward but stopped. The burned house began to glow with an eerie light. Everyone looked up. A single pinprick of white had appeared in the Dark Dimension's black abyss. It grew with each passing moment. April could feel an intelligence behind it. The light was familiar to her, but she couldn't think why.

_Kill her!_ screamed Scorpina. Father twitched but didn't move, as if he couldn't decide whether to obey Scorpina or not.

The white exploded into the Dark Dimension as a solid beam of light. It washed over Father, then April, and then everything else around them.

When the white light touched Father, the golden winds within him exploded outward and bathed April in a warm breeze. Father stumbled to one knee. His skin no longer looked charred, and the bomb erupting within him subsided under the golden storm. The long, straight hair connected with his shirt and formed what looked like a hood. The golden light raced across his clothes and began to etch out familiar patterns. An emblem burned into his chest so brightly that April couldn't look directly at it until it faded.

When she did, everything became clear. The Yellow Ranger knelt in Father's place, the emblem of the phoenix glowing with a warm light in his chest. April's aura-vision could see him clearly now. He was a mass of golden wind, as though a tornado might form within him at any moment.

_She tricked both of us_, April realized. _We've been fighting each other this whole time. I wonder what it was that Ewan saw when he fought me._ Her home had dissolved under the white beam. They were back in Ewan's prison. The beam of white light shrank in width before focusing on one of the yellow candles suspended above them. The candle blazed with white energy, and a single beam of light shot out of its side and connected it with the candle next to it. This process repeated dozens of times in an instant until every candle was connected with a web of light.

"No!" Scorpina screamed as she reappeared. "I _will_ control you!" Her hands shot towards April, and the Blue Ranger felt an invisible force tug her entire body towards Scorpina. She looked down at herself. Her body was full of blue ocean water, but something deep black darted between the waves. April felt another tug, and the black slammed against the front of her body in response.

_Venom_, she thought. A third tug almost dropped her to her knees.

"Fuck off!" shouted Ewan. He made to charge at Scorpina, but fat drops of darkness fell from the void, between the connections of the white candles, and into the mist. They plopped between the Ranger and Scorpina, and wherever they fell a mudman formed.

Ewan stopped. More and more mudmen fell between them, but for every one that fell to the floor, three more were zapped into oblivion by the white webbing. Scorpina pulled at April again, and April felt her feet drag across the ground.

Mudmen rained down faster than ever. Ewan leapt into their midst, and the tornado that April had foreseen unleashed itself within him. Mudmen flew in all directions as Ewan brought his fury down upon them. The Dark Dimension couldn't slow him down, but the mudmen would not stop raining down from above.

Scorpina must have sensed that she had gained the upper hand again, for she laughed that high-pitched cackle of hers. "Poor Little Ranger is all alone again," she cooed. "Poor Little Ranger shouldn't have come here. Poor Little Ranger was so foolish…" The black tugged April forward once more. The pain from having something push from the inside was excruciating. She fell to one knee. "Perhaps you're the smart Ranger after all," Scorpina said. "Bow to Rita's might and join her, as I have."

April heard swearing from nearby. Ewan had finally been overwhelmed, and now a group of mudmen hauled him over and dropped him on his knees next to April.

"Get yourself out of here," he said. "I can hold them off."

"No; _you_ get out of here," said April. "I can handle this place better than you can. I'll be fine."

Ewan started to laugh but coughed instead. "Please. Don't turn this into a 'noble sacrifice' contest. Go. You're worth more to the world than I am."

April was beginning to think that she hadn't figured out Ewan as much as she thought she had. _Do it, _he thought to her._ I don't deserve to be a Power Ranger._

No joking. No foul language or crass remarks. Ewan wasn't kidding. He would sacrifice himself for her. Scorpina's stinger danced from one shoulder to the other. She looked like she couldn't wait to strike one of them but couldn't decide which.

"I can hear you," she sneered. "Such noble little Rangers."

_I don't care if Rita can hear this, _Ewan continued._ And hell, I don't know much about you, Blue, but cheesy as this sounds, I've realized that, hey, the world doesn't revolve around me. And if I can go down in a blaze of fucking glory so that someone as great as you can live, then fuck, maybe this is what being a Ranger is all about, right?_

When April realized that this man was willing to lay down his life for her, that someone truly _valued_ her for the first time in her life, a curious thing happened. _Being a Ranger_, thought April. In an instant she recalled all that had brought her here and everything she had learned since she had left her body. _Water must focus itself if it wants to make an impact_, Zordon had said. A small shaft of light from the white candles above them fell on April's face, and she knew that somehow, Will was there. They weren't alone.

She could feel power returning to her. Ewan must have felt the same, for he turned and gave her an odd look. _The light_, April realized. Will had reached them and given them power.

"Let me ask you something," April said to Scorpina.

The monster's tail flicked. She crossed her arms. "Unless it is 'how to serve Rita', I will kill you first for your impudence."

April ignored her. "Did you know," she said, "that mist is just water and air combined?"

April leapt to her feet and raised her arms. Ewan must have understood the meaning behind what April had said, for he did the same. Will's white light enveloped the both of them and boosted their powers. The mist rose before them. Scorpina and the mudmen tried to attack, but a blast of wind from Ewan knocked all of them away. April focused all her might into honing the mist, condensing it, fashioning it into a weapon. She could see her arms glowing blue under Will's light; Ewan, next to her, was golden.

Desperate, Scorpina's hand shot forward to try to pull April's venom towards her. The venom slipped right out of April's body, turning a deep blue as it did so, and shot straight to Scorpina's outstretched hand. But April's body must have altered the venom, for Scorpina's hand began to smoke the instant the blue venom splashed over it. She screamed a blood-curdling scream and leapt backward, tripping over something under the mist and going down with a hard fall.

That something skidded towards the Rangers, and April could feel the pull of her trident nearby. Her mind reached towards it, and up it came, out of the mist and right into her hand. The weapon increased her power tenfold, and all the mist in the prison began to focus around the trident's central point.

A thought came from Ewan – not words, exactly, but a sort of picture of an idea. April understood it immediately, and the two set to work. She felt the touch of his mind as they drew the mist towards them. She couldn't believe his determination; this was not the same Ewan who had snuck off on his own inside the police station. This was a Power Ranger.

Mudmen hauled Scorpina to her feet. She clutched her arm; the blue poison had burned her hand and forearm down to the bone. April might have been repulsed by the sight, but she was too preoccupied.

Scorpina tried to summon the mist around her to take her out of the Dark Dimension, but April and Ewan controlled the mist now, and Will's energy above them was now keeping anything from entering or leaving.

Ewan raised an arm into the air. The golden wind within him swirled out his arm, collected in the air, and shimmered into existence as a beautiful bow made of silver. Several topaz gems formed wing patterns within the bow's body, much like the sapphires in the tips of April's trident.

"You ready?" asked Ewan.

April nodded and let go of her weapon. The trident did not fall to the ground but instead lifted into the air and slowly fell into the notch of Ewan's bow. He began to draw the string back. He and April focused the mist on the trident's point until it solidified.

"You will never defeat Queen Rita!" screamed Scorpina. She pointed with her good hand while her other hand fell right off her arm. "You will die before the night is through!"

_Let's do this_, thought Ewan.

Out loud, he said, "Serket, I'm sorry for what happened to you. If there is any part of you left within that monster, I hope this releases you so that you can join your family."

As Ewan released the string, and the trident rocketed through the air, April couldn't help but notice the brief look of clarity on Scorpina's face. April didn't understand what Ewan had said, but she remembered what Zordon had said to the other Rangers about Scorpina being the old Yellow Ranger, and April could only assume that Ewan had seen visions of her before her fall. She said a small prayer for the former Ranger as the trident blasted through the first mudman. April and Ewan worked as one to manipulate the water and air around the missile to help guide it through every mudman in the dark prison. One by one they turned to dust. Many tried to run, but the strange nature of the Dark Dimension kept them in place like some demented treadmill. The Dark Dimension became a shower of mudmen dust.

The trident found its mark. Scorpina flew across the prison and skidded to a halt on her back, the trident buried deep in her chest. Tears welled in her eyes. Black smoke swirled from her body in the shape of scorpions scuttling through the air. Her golden armor melted from her body until there was none left. April and Ewan released their hold on the mist and approached.

"Serket," said Ewan. "You can leave this place."

Serket, her whole body shaking, managed to nod. Something like a smile played across her face. She tried to speak, but the pain was too much. She looked at Ewan a moment through watered eyes before her body went slack, turned into a fine golden mist, and disappeared. April caught the shaft of her trident.

"If I ever turn into her," said Ewan, "do the same for me, alright?"

"Are… you crying?"

Ewan turned away. The hood would prevent April from seeing any tears, of course, but his voice had cracked.

"Can we get out of here now?" he asked.

April looked up at the candles. One by one the white left them and shot upwards into the black. "White figured out how to reach us," said April. "He got us our powers back, and now he's leading us home. Follow the light."


	42. Episode 9 Ch 1 Coins for the Ferryman

Episode 9, Chapter 1 – Will

Dr. Cranston's willingness to help the Rangers was the first bit of good news that Will had heard all night. After agreeing to aid them, the professor had joined Alpha in going over a series of holographic schematics that were completely beyond Will, and already the two of them had created a few prototypes. Some machines Will hadn't noticed before whirred to life, and out popped some small device that the professor gingerly scooped into his arms. Alpha didn't make fun of him anymore. He must be shocked that a human could keep up with his mechanical genius.

With the two of them occupied, Will's mind turned back to the gamble he took in giving Goldar his power coin. From the moment they had gotten Ewan's body back and found that his mind was still trapped in the Dark Dimension, Will had doubted his actions and felt a fool for trusting someone like Goldar.

_Did I do the right thing, Zordon?_ he asked. He didn't want to talk about this out loud, not if the professor might hear. Dr. Cranston had taken a great risk in helping the Rangers. Will didn't want to give him any reason to leave. But Will was terrified that he may have made a huge mistake, and he had to know Zordon's opinion.

_Of all the Rangers_, said Zordon, _you were the only one who could have done what you did. Your Power did not leave you with your power coin, and it never will._

Will frowned. _I don't understand. I thought that without our coins we couldn't be Rangers._

_ The coins served as conduits for the powers you five have been granted. When I created the original Rangers, I chose those humans myself. The Power didn't take to them as I had thought they would, so I created a focus for each Ranger. None of them were ever able to access the Power of the Rangers without their coins. You five, however, are different. I allowed the Power to choose whom it would, and so the Power lies within each of you._

_ Why do we need the coins, then?_

_ Under normal circumstances, it would take years before you would learn to access your Power without the help of the coin, but tonight has greatly accelerated the process. All five of you have undergone unique trials that have bonded your souls with your Power. _

Will shook his head. Trials? What trials had he undergone? _I don't feel like I've done anything_, he thought_. The others have fought harder, and they've suffered more. They're all on those medical tables now, and I'm not._

_When you made your sacrifice to save the Yellow Ranger, you performed an act so honorable that, whether you realized it or not, your Power's bond with your soul strengthened to an incredible degree. The same process occurred with the Red and Green Rangers when they showed their _Strength_ and _Courage_ in defeating Maelstrom to defend you and Dr. Cranston, and the same is happening at this very moment to the Blue and Yellow Rangers in the Dark Dimension._

_ So we… don't need our power coins?_

_ The five of you have grown faster than I could ever have imagined, _said Zordon. _I believe that all five of you are already so attuned to your Powers that you require your coins no longer._

A weight lifted from Will's shoulders. _I had thought that I still looked like the White Ranger because you didn't want the professor to know who I was – like, the Command Center was projecting an image over me or something._

Zordon laughed. _No; you and you alone are responsible. I have never met a human so honorable, Will Weston. When you thought you were sacrificing your powers in order to save Ewan, the Power of _Honor_ became one with you._

_ That's why you said I was the only one who could have done what I did?_

_ Yes. The other Rangers could not have made that kind of sacrifice. _Honor_ alone is incorruptible. _Harmony_ can become discord. _Strength_, oppression. _Courage_, brashness. _Spirit_ is volatile and, at its worst, easy to be led astray. But _Honor_… _Honor_, at its most extreme, leads to self-sacrifice, and there is no act more worthy of a Power Ranger._

_But I didn't actually lose anything._

_You believed you would_, said Zordon, _and that makes all the difference. When Goldar touched your coin, something happened which he would not have wanted. Because your Power is incorruptible, Goldar's intentions backfired, and an echo of your _Honor_ found its way to the Dark Dimension._

_ What do you mean?_

Zordon chuckled again. _Observe your friends._

Will turned towards the medical alcove. All four Rangers lay there: the twins with their battle wounds from fighting Maelstrom, Ewan's soulless body, April, suitless, with stingers freshly removed and wounds slowly closing. But just as Will was wondering what Zordon had meant, yellow and blue beams fell down from above and into Ewan and April, respectively.

"Oh my God," Will said aloud.

_Your belief in your sacrifice made all the difference_, said Zordon. _Your _Honor_ led them out of the Dark Dimension_.

Will couldn't speak. Despite his suit, he felt tears welling in his eyes. He had helped save them. Finally, things were starting to look up.


	43. Episode 9 Ch 2 Having A Bad Day

Episode 9, Chapter 2 – Tom

Tom and the other men threw themselves against the barricades to try to hold back the onslaught. This day had gone so far to hell that Tom Oliver wondered if perhaps he had died.

Every Fourth of July followed the same pattern: teach tae kwon do at the Youth Center, have lunch at Ernie's Juice Bar – now "Zack's", ever since Ernie had passed away – teach more tae kwon do classes, watch fireworks from the roof, go home. But Zack had a surprise in store today. Some old high school friends had moved back to town, and he had decided to "get the ole' band back together". Tom had known that some of his high school buddies still lived in town. He had lunch with Jason from time to time, and he was known to have snuck into a few of Billy's crazy science lectures. Adam was probably the one Tom saw the most; he ran a rival school across town, and almost every tournament would end with a showdown between Tom's students and Adam's.

But somehow, Zack had managed to call all of them to the Youth Center for the day as a sort of "welcome home" party for their other friends, Rocky and Aisha, who were finally moving back to town now that Aisha was starting her own veterinary practice. So the seven of them spent the afternoon catching up, laughing about old times, making fun of Rocky's astonishing weight gain, trying to translate the things Billy said. Tom couldn't believe that the others still called him Tommy after all this time. Some things would never change.

But the day turned sour when Aisha started to talk about Kimberly. Tom hadn't forgotten that Rocky and Aisha had moved out to Springfield, where Kim ran a world-class gymnastics facility, but he had hoped that no one would bring her up. No one but Billy failed to miss the change in Tom's demeanor at the mention of Kim's name. He grew sulky. He slouched back in his chair and crossed his arms. He didn't want to interrupt his friends, but he would have given anything to change the subject. Kim had hurt him bad. They had been inseparable. They were going to get married. But then she went off to a world gymnastics competition and, what? After just a few weeks she sends him a Dear John letter, and that's it. Never heard from her again. She never came back to Angel Grove, never called, never answered Tom's calls.

But what made him feel the worst was hearing Aisha talk about Kim's divorce. It made Tom happy, and that in turn made him feel horrible. He should have wanted her to be happy, but deep down he knew that he wanted her to feel the rejection he had felt all those years ago. Some grudges die hard, and Tom had held on to his for over fifteen years.

After that, the conversation faltered. Billy mentioned something about a project at his lab and took his leave. Jason got a call from work soon after, and Zack had to prepare for the couples' dance class he taught every week. Parents who had brought their kids for Tom's class followed Zack and his wife Angela onto the open floor, and on a whim Aisha had dragged Rocky out to join them, leaving just Tom and Adam at their table for seven.

They had only been out there a few minutes when the first quake hit. Couples toppled all over the dance floor. People screamed and ran outside. Paintings crashed from the walls. Glasses fell from the juice bar. The quake wasn't a long one, but the one that followed was. Tom stayed clear of the windows, but outside he could see odd flashes illuminate the twilight.

Then the power went out.

Every Friday night at Zack's was Parents' Night, which included romantic candlelight dinners, so Zack's stash of candles quickly made themselves useful around the Youth Center. Zack and the others were careful to only leave them in places where they wouldn't fall over and start fires, just in case more quakes hit.

Frightened parents ran back into the Youth Center and announced that their cars weren't working. Tom and his friends raced to the rooftop, where they usually watched the city's fireworks. All of Cedar Grove had gone dark, and now the last traces of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Lightning ripped across the sky, and in its wake there formed dark clouds. Even as the group stood gaping at this impossible phenomenon, bolts struck throughout the city, and fires cast distant buildings in an eerie glow.

Tom pulled his phone from his pocket, but it was dead. The others checked their phones, but the results were all the same. Talk began to spread of a terrorist attack. Zack and Adam raced back downstairs to begin to barricade the Youth Center. Tom, Rocky, and Aisha stayed on the roof and watched, dumb-stricken, as dark shapes moved through the streets below. A few of them began to drift towards the Youth Center, and it wasn't long before people in the parking lot began to scream. Zack bellowed up the stairs for help. As Tom turned to answer Zack's call, he heard gunshots and saw police forming a line of riot shields down the street. He had to hope that they would hold this attack back, whatever it was.

When he reached the ground floor, Tom was met with one of the strangest sights he had ever seen.

Adam and Zack were fighting some kind of monster. It was nearly human, but it had no nose, and its eyes were pure fire. In the candlelight, the monster looked naked, but its skin was a strange texture, as though the whole monster were covered in mud. Where hands should have been it had a pair of club-like extensions, which it now swung about the dance floor with impressive speed.

Tom clapped Zack on the shoulder as he ran by and told him to keep barricading the entrances, and Zack, who hadn't done any serious martial arts work in nearly twenty years, was more than happy to oblige.

Tom's first kick landed in the monster's side and actually seemed to _sink in_ to the monster. He yanked his leg out and barely dodged a swipe as Adam explained that he had had the same problem.

This monster was fast. Tom and Adam spent most of their time on the defensive; the monster left no holes in its attack for the two of them to exploit. Candlelight cast inhuman shadows around the walls and the terrified onlookers. Zack tried to rally everyone to help barricade the doors, but few could break away from watching Adam and Tom battle this _thing_.

Adam ducked under a club and grabbed the monster's arm, but it was far stronger than Tom and Adam expected, for it flung Adam across the room like a sack of flour. Adam landed back-first on the steps that led up to the bar and didn't get up. Aisha screamed and ran to his side. Even though she was a veterinarian, Tom had to hope that she might be able to help him.

But Tom had his own problems. Now he was alone against this monster, and if he didn't think of something soon he and everyone else here might die. If he could at least get this thing away from the crowd…

And that was it. Tom's brilliant plan snapped into his head. It was a horrible, last-ditch kind of plan, but it was all he had. They had no weapons – this was the Youth Center, after all – and now Tom's only help was down for the count. Tom repositioned himself and let the monster press its attack. He found himself being driven backwards towards the stairs to the roof.

When his foot found the first stair, he leapt off it and scored a solid kick to the monster's face. Tom scrambled up the stairs and called insults down, and sure enough the enraged monster followed. Tom ran outside just in time to see a fireball strike the side of a helicopter far above them. It spiraled downward and would likely crash nearby, but Tom had to focus on _not dying_ right now.

The monster charged onto the roof and straight for Tom, who had pressed his back against the roof's edge. The monster dove, but just as Tom made to dodge, the gravel gave way under his foot, and he slipped. The monster's club-hand caught Tom hard in the stomach and brought him over the roof's edge along with the monster. Tom felt himself tumbling and reached out. He barely caught on to the roof's edge and hung on for dear life while the monster plummeted to the sidewalk below. Tom dared a glance down. The monster got back on its feet within seconds. It roared up at Tom, who hauled himself back onto the roof. That fall should have killed that thing, but instead it disappeared around the side of the building, looking no more injured than when Tom had first seen it.

But at least Tom had gotten it away from the others.

The Youth Center had quieted down when Tom returned downstairs. Adam was alright but shaken from the attack. Zack and the others had finished boarding up the windows and putting all the tables and chairs and other heavy things in front any openings.

It was only a few minutes before something began to pound on the doors. Tom and his friends pressed themselves against the barricade. They took turns to conserve energy, for the pounding never let up. Zack had passed out his sports equipment to the adults, but Tom knew that baseball bats and hockey pads would do little against these mud monsters. Soon the pounding became the heartbeat of the Youth Center. Most of the children had fallen asleep in their parents' arms. One by one candles snuffed out.

Now Tom checked his analog watch, one of the only things still working since the power had gone out. 3:00 AM, over five hours since the pounding had started. His body ached. No one had heard any news. They still had no idea what those things were, or if anything was out there fighting them. But Tom had to hold out for hope. Surely help was on its way.


	44. Episode 9 Ch 3 Improvement

Episode 9, Chapter 3 – Bill

The information Zordon had gathered was incredible. His scope was far beyond Earth; Bill found extensive files on the other seven planets in the system, Pluto and Chiron, the Kuiper Belt, Alpha Centauri, and dozens of other star systems. But of course it was the Dark Dimension that Bill was most interested in. Zordon claimed that his knowledge of it was lacking, but in one minute Bill had read more information than he could have uncovered in twenty years. He could hardly contain his excitement; his stomach fluttered and his hands couldn't stop moving around the console. Alpha made some kind of sexual wise-crack, but Bill wasn't listening. It wasn't until the computers finished creating a new model of Bill's cryogenic mass decelerators that he snapped out of his giddy stupor.

He picked up the new bomb and examined it. The craftsmanship was exquisite, far superior to the makeshift pieces of junk he had scrounged up in his lab.

"Not a bad start," said Alpha. "For a human."

"Affirmative," said Bill. He returned to the control console and pulled up a hologram of the freeze-bomb's schematics. "With your advanced technology I was able to increase the cryogenic mass decelerator's explosive radius by approximately seventy-three percent. With more time, I believe I could even adapt the technology to other forms of weaponry."

He placed the bomb on the console and minimized the schematics. Already he had become a wiz at flipping through the Command Center's data files; it was mostly a matter of fine hand movements, and years of mechanical engineering had given him a level of dexterity beyond the average human.

But as he made his way back to the data on the Dark Dimension, he came across files for the Power Rangers themselves. Curiosity quickly got the better of him.

"May I, Zordon?" he asked. Though he wanted to learn about their tech, he didn't want to do anything to anger the disembodied voice.

_You may_, said Zordon.

First in the file was a series of schematics for the Rangers' armor. Bill was surprised to see that the five suits each had unique characteristics. He wasn't sure why all of the suits didn't have the same specifications, but he assumed Zordon had a good reason. "I'm supposed to make better armor for them," muttered Alpha. "Apparently Rita learned some new tricks in the past ten-thousand years. Go figure."

Bill studied the armor. The tech here was almost as amazing as Zordon's data on dark energy, but one thing struck Bill as odd. "The mudmen were using guns," he said. "Judging from these schematics, I would say that Rita is somehow enhancing their firepower; there's no way a normal assault rifle would be able to penetrate this armor normally. Have you considered providing the Rangers with external kinetic dampeners? They should lessen the impact of incoming projectiles without decelerating the movements of the Rangers."

Alpha paused, then tilted his head to the side. "I think I'm in love. Where have you been all my life?"

Bill had always been worthless when it came to social interactions, but at least humans had faces. He had no idea how to answer Alpha, but thankfully the robot turned and hopped on another console to begin new work on the Rangers' suits. Bill returned to sorting through the Rangers' files.

"What are 'zords'?" he asked. He had almost missed the file, but there it was: one "zord" for each Ranger. Whatever these things were, their tech surpassed anything else Bill had seen thus far.

_Hopefully, the situation will not become so dire that you will find out_, answered Zordon.

Bill decided not to press the issue, but when he returned to the files on the Dark Dimension he found that the computers were busy collecting information from the Yellow and Blue Rangers.

_Their consciousnesses have returned to us_, explained Zordon. _We will learn from them what we can. Hopefully they have gained information that will aid us in stopping Rita from unleashing more monsters within this dimension._

Bill smiled as the White Ranger ran to the sides of his fallen friends. _These kids must be close_, thought Bill. He imagined his own friends as Power Rangers at that age. Tommy and Jason would have been naturals, and Kim, Zack, and Trini would have been good choices, too. It surprised him how easily he could see the five of them becoming the five Power Rangers. He wondered if he would have been allowed to help them out like he was doing now. It would have crushed him to have been left out.

He wondered how his friends were doing around the city. Were any of them still alive? Were they still at the Youth Center when Rita's forces attacked? Would he be dead now if he had stayed with them? He moved through the computer system and found that he could look around the city in real time. Though rain now blanketed all of Cedar Grove, the fires refused to let up. Bill wasn't much of a believer in sorcery, but this strange perversion of science unsettled him. With all the rain that was coming down, at least some of the fires should have let up. Yet they seemed to be growing.

Mudmen roamed the city in droves, but here and there Bill found pockets of humans still alive. Many of them were led by police officers. Bill recalled the campus officers who had died at the University. He had watched from his window, helpless, as the officers were cut down, their bullets doing absolutely nothing to the monsters.

And suddenly it hit him that he could help more people than just the Power Rangers.

"Hey, Zordon," he said. "Would it be possible to use your molecular translocation device to provide some of the people of Cedar Grove with my cryogenic molecular decelerators?"

_I believe it would be unwise to provide untrained humans with such technology_, said Zordon._ But I understand your desire to help. While the computers continue to retrieve information from the Yellow and Blue Rangers, I would ask that you redesign your work so that they would not do more harm than good in untrained hands._

"Affirmative," said Bill. "I think I have an idea. I'll get right on it."

_ Very good, but your time will be limited. One of the Rangers is about to awaken._


	45. Episode 9 Ch 4 Willfulness

Episode 9, Chapter 4 – Ewan

Ewan opened his eyes and slowly drew a breath. He was out of the Dark Dimension. He could feel it. No more illusions. No more constant visions of death and despair and Goldar's goddamned grin. No more Scorpina. No more Serket. He was back in the real world. He was himself again.

_Hey man_, thought Will. _You alright_? Ewan stretched and looked at the figure at the foot of his medical bed. The White Ranger stared back at him with those intense misty-white eyes. The sight of the Ranger suit reminded Ewan that he still wore his.

"Get me out of this suit," he said.

Will glanced at Zordon's fish tank and back to Ewan. _Jack's professor is here_, he explained. _We can't show ourselves to him._

"Don't care," said Ewan. "I'm getting out of this fucking thing."

_It is alright_, said Zordon. Will still looked confused, but he stepped away from Ewan's bed and shrugged. Ewan had but to think of his suit going away, and a pale golden glow surrounded his body. The cloth and leather of his armor evaporated into the air until only the faint outline of the phoenix remained on Ewan's chest. Under the armor, he wore a yellow gi with black trim. Better than a Speedo, at least.

He vaguely recognized the professor. Ewan and Will sometimes visited Jack at the lab on campus. He had only met the professor face-to-face once, and that was _only_ when Jack had forced the guy to come out of hiding for some good old-fashioned social interaction. Now the professor's hands flew over some consoles on the other side of the Command Center so quickly that for a moment Ewan thought he looked like he was at some kind of rave. The sight would almost have been funny, but Ewan wasn't in much of a joking mood.

He sat on the side of his bed that faced April and buried his face in his hands. He could see the truth plainly now; Scorpina's stingers sat discarded in a small basket next to April's bed. She really had been attacked by Scorpina in the police station. April had almost died because he had been such a fucking idiot. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Jack and Jess on their own medical beds.

_They'd be fine if it weren't for me_, he thought. He began to wonder if all the visions of death Goldar had showed him were real. How much pain had his actions brought?

_They chose their own paths_, said Zordon. _Do not mistake your ill-conceived actions for stupidity. Your Power of _Spirit_ was tainted with Rita's evil. You were bound to the previous Yellow Ranger and had to overcome her before you could continue your journey as a Power Ranger. There was no other way._

"Doesn't change the fact that everyone nearly died because of me. Give my Power to the professor or something. I shouldn't be here."

"Geez," said Will. "That place really must have done a number on you."

Flashes of all the things Ewan saw during his days in the Dark Dimension raced through his mind. It was all he could do to keep from throwing up all over the Command Center floor. Again. "How long was I gone?"

"A few hours. It's 3:00 AM now."

Ewan stared. "You're tellin' me I wasn't even gone a full day?" Somehow, the fact that so little time had actually passed was the cruelest of the Dark Dimension's jokes. He tried not to think about it. "I'm telling you," he insisted, "give my Power to someone else. Anyone. I'm done."

"Holy hell," muttered Will. "That's not the Ewan I know."

Ewan snorted. "That guy's dead. Long gone. Find someone else. Someone with a bit more pep. I know some nice cheerleaders… if any of 'em are still alive."

Will shook his head. "The Power chose _you_, man."

"Do I sound like the '_Holder of fucking Spirit_' to you now, Will? Anyone would be better at this than I would. I just…" visions of the person Ewan had fought, who had actually been April, "…can't."

"No one else could have survived in the Dark Dimension for that long. What you did was amazing. I couldn't have done that. I'd have cracked."

"I _did_ crack. Listen to me. I sound like a fucking pussy."

"You hung on while you were in there. Now you're in shock. That's normal. It means you're still human."

_The Power of _Spirit_ is much more than vivacity, young one,_ said Zordon. _Among my kind, some refer to our aspect of _Spirit_ as _Willfulness_._

"And I am _willful_ to find someone better for the job."

Spirit_ is that part of all of us that reminds us of who we really are. If the Power of _Spirit_ chose you then you are key to the identity of this team. To lose you would be for the Power Rangers to lose their sense of self._

Ewan laughed without smiling. "If I'm the identity of this team then we're all totally fucked."

"So you'd just quit?" asked Will. "After cleansing your Power, and saving a whole train full of people. You'd ditch all of us and skip town?"

"It's not about quitting anymore, Will. I…" he had trouble finding the words. He'd never felt this way before, and the sudden change made him deeply uncomfortable. But Will was his friend. One of the few friends he truly had. Hell, Will and Jack probably were the _only_ friends he had. "Last time," said Ewan, "when I said 'no' and went home, it was because I was scared for my own life. I didn't want to get hurt like I'd seen Goldar do to you and the twins. When I took the coin, I was stupid enough to believe that I would make it out of this without a scratch. Thought I was fucking invincible. But now? It's totally different. What I've done has caused so much pain. I'm scared – like, completely shit-my-pants terrified – that if I go back out there as a Ranger, I'll cause even more harm, and I just can't live with that. I would die before I see anyone else get hurt because of what I've done."

Will and Zordon said nothing. Ewan meant what he said, but putting his feelings into words had perhaps been the hardest thing he had done all night. He was ashamed of how scared he was, and that shame and terror had convinced him that he was no Power Ranger.

_I won't stop you from going_, thought Will. _But… don't do this. We need you. Who else is gonna save your mom?_

At the thought of family, Ewan tumbled through time and space and landed in the body of the old Yellow Ranger. Serket stood at the edge of a waterfall, her Ranger's bow in hand and an arrow of dust and air forming on its string. The Blue Ranger stood in the water, her trident with sapphire tips having just leapt from the water's surface.

"Long live Rita Repulsa," the Yellow Ranger rasped. "The Green Ranger and I have bowed to our new master. Join us, or die."

"No!" shouted the Blue Ranger. "I can't… I won't fight you! You're my friend!"

"Blood is thicker than water, and I will save my family, no matter the cost." Serket loosed her arrow and caught the Blue Ranger in the chest. She cried out and splashed into the water, and Ewan fell back into his own body.

"Was that really necessary?" he grumbled.

_I saw your vision along with you_, said Zordon. _Do you understand what your Power is telling you?_

"That Serket killed the old Blue Ranger?"

_Serket was driven mad by Rita's lie. Rita turned Serket's own willfulness against her, channeled her towards the wrong path. Serket lacked the inner strength to stand against such manipulation, but you, Ewan McKay, are different. You and Serket stand in odd parallel, yet you could not be more dissimilar. You have lost your families to Rita's flames of ambition. You have stood imprisoned within her Dark Dimension. Yet, where the Serket whom I knew and loved perished, you endured to be returned to life. The phoenix on your chest is as apt for you as it was cruel irony for her. She buckled under the pressure of the crucible. You were reborn. You have been given a second chance._

Ewan didn't respond immediately, and when he did, his words came with slow consideration. "I'd still be in there if it weren't for April. She saved my life, and you," he pointed at Will, "I don't know what the fuck you did, but it worked."

_I traded my power coin for your body,_ said Will. _Goldar's idea. He meant to trick us, but it looks like it backfired._

Ewan ran his hand down his side. "I do have a hot body, and you're a fucking idiot, but… thanks."

Will looked about as flabbergasted as someone without a face could. _You're thanking me_? he asked.

_The bond between the five of you is quite remarkable_, said Zordon_. Before this fight is over, it will prove to be your greatest strength. Should you leave, Ewan, that bond will be severed, and the Rangers will not win this battle. It is as simple as that._

_I can't believe you thanked me_, Will shook his head_. You never thank me for anything. Seriously, what did that place do to you?_

Back in the presence of someone as pure as Will, Ewan began to wonder if Rita Repulsa was as corrupt as her Dark Dimension. Yet the more he thought about the past few hours, the more obvious the answer became: _yes_. _Hell yes. Fuck yes. _Rita was a twisted mess of death. Of chaos. Of lust. Of control. She had to be stopped, or the whole world would become one big Dark Dimension.

And Ewan was the only person in existence who had resisted her. God damn it all.

_What did it do to me_? he asked Will. _If we ever find Rita, I'll show you._


	46. Episode 9 Ch 5 A Flare for Distraction

Episode 9, Chapter 5 – Tom

Tom knew that they couldn't hold out much longer.

His watch now read 3:30, and just in the past thirty minutes they had suffered two very close calls: a muddy hand through the window and an evil face through the cracking door. The monsters would break through soon. Help wasn't coming.

"Guys," said Tom, "we have to get them away from the Youth Center."

"Yeah," said Rocky, "but how? We're basically stuck in here."

Tom thought back on how he had gotten the last monster out of the building. "No we're not," he said. "Just hold for a little while longer. I have an idea."

Stupid, he knew, but most of his ideas tonight had been stupid, and so far they had all worked. When he returned to the Youth Center's roof he was surprised to find rain falling in thick sheets. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky before the invasion started. The pounding from the monsters must have masked the sound of the storm.

It was almost impossible to see more than a few feet; the city's power was still out, and the clouds blocked all moon and starlight, leaving only the dim glow of distant fires and the constant crack of lightning.

Though the Youth Center was only two stories tall, its second story was vaulted and much taller than usual, so a jump to the ground was out of the question. Tom leaned over the edge and noticed that a window pane below stuck out to form a small ledge. If he was careful, he might be able to drop down to it, then to the window sill below that. From there, it was a short enough distance to the ground that he could drop and be alright.

He was already soaked to the bone. He had to hope that the extra weight wouldn't affect his climb. He took several quick breaths to pump himself up, and then Tom dropped over the side of the building.

His fingers slipped on the window pane. He lost his grip and hung on for just a second before he found himself falling again. The sill was larger, but though he caught himself, the shock of the fall pulled at his arms. They stretched past the point they should. He cried out and released his grip. The ground rose up to meet him, but years of training kicked in at the last moment. When he hit the ground, he tucked his legs and rolled through a puddle to soften the impact. He lay on his back in the rain, his arms and legs aching, but nothing broken. So far, so good.

Tom hauled himself to his feet and ran around the corner. Though he could not see it through the rain, he knew that the Youth Center's front door lay just beyond the parking lot. Tom slipped between parked cars until he came to his own. It was an older model, made before keyless entry became so commonplace. He unlocked the front door and slid into the driver's seat, but unfortunately his car – and, he suspected, all the rest – still did not work. Instead he popped his trunk and rummaged through his tae kwon do gear until he found the only thing he had that might be of help: his competition sword. Not that he ever fought anyone with it – it was purely for form, not fighting – but it might come in handy. He also busted open his old roadside emergency kit for a little something that should grab the monsters' attention.

He could hear them as he approached the front doors. They were groaning, grunting – it sounded like some sick imitation of a zombie horde. _Darkness is on my side_, Tom thought. _If I can lead them away and then lose them, they won't find their way back here._

He withdrew the item he had taken from his roadside emergency kit. "Hey!" he yelled. "Over here!" He looked away and struck the road flare. It lit all the world around him with bright red: the rain-soaked buildings, the abandoned cars, the bodies in the road. He heard the monsters scream, and he dared a glance at them.

What shocked him the most was how many there really were: at least two dozen blinded monsters stumbled towards him. He noticed that their muddy feet stuck to the ground as they stepped, like the rain was causing them to slowly melt. He had seen the speed of the monster that had been inside the Youth Center. He was thankful for any advantage.

Tom turned and ran in the opposite direction slowly enough to ensure that the whole group would follow. Say what you would about these mud monsters – that they were grotesque, that they were powerful, that they were deadly – but they were not bright. Every last one followed Tom away from the Youth Center, their feet making disgusting slurping sounds as they dragged their sticky, muddy selves across the pavement.

The rain had given Tom another idea. Angel River ran through the middle of town, and it was only a few blocks away. If Tom could somehow convince these idiot monsters to fall into the water… Tom quickened his pace.

He tried not to focus on the destruction around him as he ran through the streets. His flare cast strange shadows on the buildings. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him from above, but every time he looked up he saw only rain and darkness.

As he rounded a corner into an alley, his light fell upon a fresh group of mud monsters so close he could have touched them. He cried out in surprise and swung his competition sword. It stuck in the nearest monster's neck and didn't come out. Tom left it, turned, and tore back out of the alley.

He tripped over something as he came back around the corner. The flare flew out of his hand. He rolled across the sidewalk and into the waterlogged street. Disoriented, he pulled himself to his feet. The monsters had reached the flare. The closest one snuffed it out with his sticky foot. Tom turned and continued down the street, not daring to think about the soft thing he had tripped over.

Without the light of the flare, Tom had to slow down. He couldn't afford to trip again, but now he was running almost completely blind. The slightest amount of light reflected down from the clouds – presumably from the city's multiple fires – but the brightness of the flare had made Tom's eyes unaccustomed to the dark. He found himself running purely on the hope that his knowledge of this part of the city was as good as he thought it was. To his relief, he didn't trip over any more soft things.

His stomach and knee found the railing for him. He toppled headfirst over the rail, just barely managing to grab on before he would have fallen. He had found the Angel River. His intuition had been right: he was on Caesar Street, which overlooked the river with a scenic dropoff. Tom knew the river to be some two or three stories below. He could hear the water below his dangling feet. It was rushing much faster than usual. Runoff from the storm must be flooding the river. Its current would be extremely dangerous.

Just what Tom was counting on.

"Hey!" he called. "Mud goons! Over here!"

Tom dropped down so that he held onto the cement of the sidewalk's edge rather than the railing. No one would be able to see him from the road now. He yelled again and swung himself to the side, monkey-style. Sure enough, several screaming mud monsters fell past him a second later, their voices suddenly muffled by the raging river. More and more fell past, but eventually the monsters grew wise and halted before the rail. They held some kind of brief discussion, and then they turned to leave. His eyes now more accustomed to the darkness, Tom pulled himself up and dared a glance on to the road.

The monsters were going back the way they had come. _They might go back to the Youth Center._

Tom, his arms still aching from his botched descent of the Youth Center, hauled himself onto the pavement. He tried to ignore the throbbing in his knee. "Miss me?" he called.

_Anything to keep them from my friends._

The monsters wasted no time in charging at him. He braced himself, fully prepared to pull as many of them backwards over the rail as he could, when something unexpected happened.

Tom's mind had a hard time deciphering what he saw. A dark void simply appeared around the neck of the nearest monster, like a collar made of the deepest black. Its head detached and plopped to the ground, and its entire body turned to golden dust. A shadow haunted its wake.

The other monsters didn't even have time to react before the void consumed them, too. Some had dark holes opened in their bodies like the first. Others fell through a black nothingness that opened in the ground. One monster just disappeared altogether.

Just like that, the monsters were gone.

Tom didn't realize just how scared he had been until that point. His heart was pounding in time with the rain. He body shivered, though the night was warm. And now he stood before this shadow figure who had just dispatched nearly a dozen of those monsters as easily as Tom might have beaten his youngest students. _He could kill me_, Tom thought.

Which is why it surprised him when the shadow man slumped forward onto his hands and knees.

Tom rushed to his side. Even at this close, the figure remained a black shadow. "Are you okay?" asked Tom. He reached for the figure, but it shrank away.

"Y-you must…" it said with a woman's voice. "You must… help me…"

"Help you? Who are you?"

"The other Rangers… They're the ones destroying the city. We… have to… stop them…"

"Miss, what Rangers? What are you talking about? What's going on around here? What are those monsters?"

"I'm dying. You have to take this." The shadow held up a hand. There, in her palm, was an old coin black with age. There was some kind of animal stamped on its face, but Tom couldn't tell what it was. "You must defeat the other Rangers. Take this coin and… ngh… it will reveal all."

"The coin? What's the coin supposed to do?" But even as Tom asked, he felt his attention pulled to the coin. It would show him incredible secrets, he knew. Even now it whispered to him, its voice too faint to hear. This tiny little thing in the dying woman's hands held a power too immense for Tom to put into words. He didn't know why he knew this. He just did. "Who are you?" he whispered.

"Rita. My name… is Rita." She crumpled forward with one final gasp of air. The coin rolled out of her hands and stopped at Tom's feet. When he looked back to the woman's body, it had disappeared.


	47. Episode 10 Ch 1 The Noblest of Victories

**Author's note:** _Hey guys. If you're reading this, then I salute your apparent insanity and I thank you for sticking with what has essentially been a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of story. If you're wondering why this is the first new chapter in so long, you can thank school. Nursing school, specifically. And if you've ever known anyone who's gone through nursing school, you know that they spend every second of their time scrambling to keep up with the eighteen chapters of reading, five tests, two practicums, and endless clinicals per week. They have no friends outside of school, and they certainly don't have hobbies unless it involves taking vital signs. Last week was midterms, which means we don't have much to prepare for next week (only one test, yay!), so here we are. I can't promise very many more chapters in the immediate future, but I do promise that, barring my demise (likely involving some amusing mishap with a defibrillator), I will finish this thing. So, hang in there, you beautiful person you. And thanks again for being crazy out of your mind. Now on with the show._

Episode 10, Chapter 1 – Jack

Sixty feet.

Jack thought back on how they had gotten here, leaping through the air halfway between a collapsed apartment building and the city's elevated train tracks. One by one Ewan, Jack, Jess, and April had awoken back in the Command Center, and one by one they were greeted with an unfortunate truth: they were losing the city. Over a million people had been killed or captured. What few pockets of resistance remained were being hunted down by mudmen and other, darker monsters. Half the city was aflame; the other half was under water. And now the United States army, hastily assembled from nearby bases, was fighting a losing battle against Rita's forces just outside of town. More pointless deaths that only the Rangers could possibly stop. Everything rode on their shoulders.

Zordon had teleported them to Southside, Cedar Grove's slums, and the sight had made Jack sick to his stomach. Rain flooded the streets. Bodies clogged the drains. The whole neighborhood was silent but for the downpour. The sprint to the train tracks would have been peaceful were it not for the human debris.

Fifty feet.

Everything was different now. No one had objected to Ewan's return but Ewan. He had changed. They all had. Ewan's cocky persona was gone, leaving only the real self underneath. He was just as scared as Jack felt; they _all_ were. There had been talk of running away. It was a short discussion.

Forty feet.

They had been through so much tonight. So many struggles. So much pain. Yet it had been something Will had said that had ended the discussion of giving up: a quote from Plato, and one of Will's master's favorites. "For a man to conquer himself," Will had said, "is the first and noblest of all victories." Jack and the others knew without a doubt what he had meant, and Will was right. _We've conquered ourselves. Now it's Rita's turn._

Thirty feet.

Despite the destruction of Cedar Grove, Zordon seemed pleased with how the Rangers were doing. Jack swore that he had heard a smile in Zordon's voice as he informed the humans of their next mission. For them to stand any chance against Rita's forces under the darkness and storms, they would have to turn on some lights. It was only a matter of getting the Rangers to the right part of town to intercept the train, and here they were, sailing through the air in what felt like slow-motion while the train blasted towards them at about two-hundred miles an hour.

Twenty feet.

Their night as Power Rangers had taken such a detour. It seemed like weeks ago that they were pulling people out of the burning apartment. How would things have been different if they had wrested the police station from Rita's grasp? What if Ewan hadn't fallen for her trap, and April hadn't been stung by Scorpina? No, no time for what-ifs. To argue about how things _should_ have gone would be to argue with reality itself. Maybe in some other universe these things hadn't happened. Maybe somewhere there existed an Earth where Rita had never existed, and the Power Rangers weren't needed. But Jack didn't live in that universe. Rita was freed, Ewan was captured, April was stung. They had come out the other side stronger than ever. The five of them had survived the crucible. Time would tell what kind of weapon they had formed.

Ten feet.

Jack prepared himself for the landing. Dr. Cranston had whipped up some powerful magnets attached to spider silk ropes. It was only a matter of throwing the magnets at the train. But, with the train moving at such a blistering pace, it wasn't going to be pretty. It was in clear sight now, its headlight all but blinding the Rangers as its light refracted through the millions of raindrops that fell to the tracks. The Rangers had leapt even before the train had come around the bend, but Alpha's calculations had been spot-on: in a fraction of a second, they would land atop the train, get inside, and shut the whole thing down. But first they had to land, which meant having the magnetized grappling hook ready to stick to the train's metal exterior.

Jack wasn't expecting the sight that met him once he saw past the train's headlight.

Dozens of humans, most of them still alive and screaming soundlessly, were strapped to the sides of the train as some kind of sick human shielding. Jack suddenly realized why Zordon wouldn't let them just destroy the supports of one of the train's many raised track sections. Jack had no time to collect himself. He wasn't thinking about what he needed to do. He wasn't ready to land.

Zero feet.

He threw too late. Jack's magnet smashed into a side window and yanked out of his grasp. His feet hit the top of the train, and immediately he tumbled backwards over and over again through water and metal and what may have been broken glass. He felt himself suddenly thrown into the void. The train tracks were forty feet above the ground, and Jack was about to experience every inch in agonizing defeat. He had failed the others. They would have to go on without him.

_Oh no you don't!_ came a thought. The winds around him shifted. Unless he was mistaken, the air and the rain pushed him in a different direction. His tumbling slowed. Two arms caught his.

The White and Red Rangers pulled Jack onto the top of the train. Ewan and April stood behind them, all four anchored to the metal roof with their magnets.

Jack nodded to Ewan and April, for now he understood: they had manipulated their elements to bring him back to the train. Jess offered part of her rope. Jack took hold, calmed his nerves, and put the past behind him.

"_For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of victories." Plato would have been a one hell of a Ranger._


	48. Episode 10 Ch 2 Atop the Train

Episode 10, Chapter 2 – Ewan

Ewan was willing to bet quite a bit of money – money which he entirely lacked – that he was the only Ranger comfortable atop this demented train. Part of being the Ranger of wind, he guessed. He was, one might say, in his element.

He pushed the wind ahead of him to ease their progress forward. Their goal was simple: find the machine sucking the city's power, blow it to fucking hell. And according to Alpha's scans, the damn thing was in the lead car.

Naturally, there was one nasty wrinkle in their plan: the humans strapped to the train's sides. Some people might get upset if the Rangers blew the train while innocent civilians still clung to its sides. Bad for the public image, apparently.

The Rangers briefly debated what to do, but Ewan noticed something interesting about their discussion: when they spoke in thoughts, it was more rapid than if they actually spoke out loud. The thoughts of the other four were beginning to feel like they were his own. That was when he knew beyond a doubt that he had changed. He, Will, and Jack rarely agreed on anything before tonight. Now they and the girls hatched a plan about the civilians in a matter of seconds.

They pushed on through the rain and wind. Manipulating air was becoming easier with each passing moment. Saving Jack from his fall had almost felt second-nature. Slowly, Ewan was beginning to feel as though he belonged on this team again.

Something roared from behind. Ewan kept facing forward to block the wind. His heads-up display showed him what the others saw: mudmen climbing out the window shattered by Jack's magnet.

_Sorry guys_, thought Jack.

Jess drew her pistol and aimed, but the train hit a bend in the tracks, and her shot went wide.

_Use your powers_, thought Will. _Pistols are too risky. Might hit a civilian. Yellow, keep pushing forward, but let some air through when I say._

_ Right on, boss_, thought Ewan.

Ewan kept his gaze forward while the other four turned and walked backwards with him. He watched their fight through his HUD: raindrops collected into a wall and knocked a mudman into the night, fire pooled around the mudmen's feet until they lost their suction and crumbled, metal from the train itself shifted beneath the mudmen's feet and kept them off-balance. And all the while Will used his HUD to paint each target and orchestrate their defense.

_God damn_, thought Ewan. _We're a team._

Ewan couldn't help but notice that Will was letting some mudmen approach. The others followed his lead, but Ewan didn't like how close some of the monsters were getting.

_Yellow_, thought Will, _do it_. Will marked the nearby mudmen. Jess dried out their feet, April pulled water from their legs, and Jack shifted the metal below them. Ewan realized what Will intended. He adjusted his push so that air blasted over the Rangers' shoulders and into the heart of the approaching horde. As one, the whole group of them lifted off the train and disappeared into darkness.

_These guys have just gotten boring_, thought Jess.

_Don't speak too soon_, thought Jack.

The rain, wind and darkness were so intense that even though the eyes of the others Ewan couldn't see the rear of the train. Ahead, they had three more cars to cover before they reached their destination. So far, so good.

_Tunnel ahead_, warned Ewan. The others saw through his eyes and ducked as one. The pressure and sounds intensified around them as brick and dirt ripped past overhead. The quick relief from the rain was nice, but the tunnel was not long, and they quickly stood again.

Ewan felt the thing approach more than he saw it. He stopped moving, and the others did the same. Their thoughts came together so rapidly now that it was more like a single stream of consciousness. _What was that? Feel something? Yes, from the rear of the train. Look, see something. Be careful._

A dark mass thudded across the train towards them. This time Ewan turned to look. Its shape was hard to define through the night, but he could make out what looked like several arms, many of which seemed to be holding something. Lightning struck and illuminated the monster only long enough to give Ewan a strong sense of dread.

Mudmen still clung to the side of the train, but even they halted as the monster approached. Black tentacles scooped a pair of them up and hurled them at the Rangers. Ewan and the others scattered. Jess fired a pair of red bolts at the thing, but the shots disappeared into the void of the monster's form. It roared and swept a tentacle over the train's side. When it returned, it held a human.

_Save her_! thought Will, as if the Rangers really needed to be told _that_.

The monster whipped the human at them. April leapt, still clutching her rope with her right hand, and caught the screaming girl with her left. A thought came from April that they needed some place to put this poor girl that wasn't on the top of a two-hundred-mile-an-hour train of doom. Jack responded by leaping over the side of the train, kicking in a window, and disappearing inside, leaving Jess alone at the other end of her shared rope. Ewan's HUD combined his and Jack's vision. The Green Ranger had swung into a compartment full of very surprised mudmen sitting at the tables of the dining car. It looked like they had been playing cards.

The monster grabbed another prisoner and threw him. This time, though, Ewan was ready. He shifted the air around the man and brought him down gently to Will's arms. Jess swung over the side and joined her brother. A moment later, the two shot an outline of a hole through the train's roof. Will, still holding the unconscious man, stomped the center of the outline and created a nice new skylight for the diner car. He and April dropped through. Jess leapt back up, followed soon by Will.

_Green's sealing the car_, thought Will. _Then he and April will make their way under us inside_.

_We have to stop that thing_, thought Ewan, pointing to the mass of black and tentacles. A small crowd of mudmen stood far behind it, not daring to move past. Ewan was proud of the little bastards; finally, some of them had grown brains.

_We stop the train, we stop that monster_, thought Will, perhaps a bit optimistically.

Will pulled Jess back to her rope, and the three pushed forward as quickly as they could. The tentacle monster slung more humans at them, and each time they caught the person and somehow or another – whether it be swinging through the window or having Jack open up a fresh hole in the roof – the Rangers rescued each person and sealed them within the train. Mudmen tried to scale the train's side to ambush the civilians, only to be blown into the void by the defenders inside.

Unfortunately, the tentacle monster moved faster than the Rangers could. Ewan knew that it was only a matter of time, and so did the others. This monster that they had no idea how to fight would be right on top of them before they ever made it to the front of the train.

_Go_, thought Will. _We'll figure something out._

Ewan swore. He knew Will would say that, even without being able to read his thoughts. Ewan protested with quick, colorful language that would have gotten a slap from his mom if she was around.

Will's thoughts came too quickly for words. Ewan could move faster on his own than when he tried to shield all of the Rangers from the wind, thought Will. He had to press forward and destroy the machine; the others would try to stall the tentacle monster however they could. Ewan countered by saying that bad things tended to happen when the team split.

_Not this time_, thought Will. _We believe in you_.

Will grabbed Ewan's magnet and launched it forward. It clanged into the side of the next train car, hauling Ewan along with it. He fell with a heavy thud, still barely holding on to the rope, and bounced along the top of the train until he steadied himself.

He sat up just in time to see Jess' fire-sword slice through the bindings which held the cars together. The rest of the train – the other Rangers, the mudmen, the monster – faded slowly into the night behind him. The tentacle monster roared so loudly that pieces of a passing building crumbled, the few remaining windows shattering completely from the sound.

_It's up to you_, thought Will. Ewan could hear a smile in his voice. _Try not to let us down._


	49. Episode 10 Ch 3 The Side Project

Episode 10, Chapter 3 – Bill

"Hey, Four-eyes. Here."

Dr. Cranston looked up, surprised. He had been so engrossed in the Command Center computers that he had forgotten anyone else was there. He turned to the robot. It was holding something out for him.

A gun.

"Your design," said the robot. "Time to shoot something in the ass."

"My cryogenic molecular decelerator," said Bill. In addition to helping Alpha and Zordon develop a machine that could disrupt Rita's connection to the Dark Dimension, Bill had busied himself with adapting his freeze bombs into a more user-friendly weapon. He had finished its design just seconds before, and already here was a working prototype! "This place is incredible."

"You ain't so bad yourself," said the robot. It handed him the gun. It was heavy, about the size if a submachine gun. Pale blue veins coursed over its body, collecting at a point just at the base of the barrel. The veins pulsed slowly.

Bill held it with two hands and looked around for a target. In response, spotlights drew his attention to an alcove he hadn't noticed before. As he watched, a hologram of a mudman shimmered into existence.

Bill approached the hologram slowly, his heart racing and his gun shaking_. It's not real_, he told himself. The hologram snarled. _It's just a really, really good hologram._

"Any time, Professor Parkinson's," grumbled Alpha.

Bill fired. Despite the gun's weight, it had massive recoil. The gun flew from Bill's hand and sent him flying. The Command Center tilted back. A flash of light and pain washed over Bill's vision. When he could see again, the robot stood over him, shaking its head.

"Smooth," it said as it held out its hand. Bill took it and climbed to his feet.

"Is there any way to minimize the recoil?" Bill asked. He searched the room for the gun and found it several meters away from where he had stood. Lines of ice were etched in the wall above the hologram. He had missed. Badly.

"Yeah," answered Alpha. "Go to the gym."

_Unfortunately, Alpha is correct, _said Zordon._ This weapon cannot be upgraded further in the time we have remaining. If you choose to give it to any humans within Cedar Grove, it would be unwise to arm anyone who cannot control its power._

Bill wondered what kind of humans had been worthy enough to control the powers of the Rangers.

"How many can you make?" Bill asked.

_We have enough supplies for twelve. I have searched the city for those who may be able to handle the gun. I will be sending you and Alpha to each one individually._

Bill frowned. "Do you want us to tell them what's happening?"

_The humans wish to fight back. Your army battles outside the city, but its efforts will be in vain._

"Then should we give them one of the guns?"

_No. We cannot put this weapon – or any of our technology – in the hands of your military._

Bill nodded. He had expected that answer. "You protect, not provide."

_Yes. Were any of our technology to fall into the wrong hands it could hasten the destruction of your world. My kind has seen it happen elsewhere. Well-intentioned guardians giving the indigenous people technology for which they were not prepared. They abused their new power. They had no responsibility for it; they had not earned this new technology, and their carelessness destroyed them._

Bill had heard this argument before. It was a popular topic; technology was moving faster today than it ever had before. Humanity's laws can't keep up. The kinds of advances usually seen over the course of a century now only took a few years at most. People held no appreciation for the technological power they now held. Hell, Bill's pocket calculator was more advanced than the computers NASA used to send the first Americans to the moon. Many scientists – himself included – were scared for where the planet was headed.

"So civilians only," said Bill.

_Yes. I have chosen carefully._

"Yet you told me earlier that we cannot put these weapons in unskilled hands."

_I think you will agree with my selections_.

"Did you choose the Power Rangers?"

Zordon paused. _The Power chose this group_, he said. _ I believe I have learned from its choices. Tell me, Bill Cranston: what kind of person would you choose to wield the Power of a Ranger?_

Bill had considered that very question when the Rangers left for their latest mission. "Someone who wasn't looking for it," he said. "Someone who… didn't take pleasure from having that kind of power. Someone who only used it when they had to."

The room was quiet. Fluid moved within the central tank. _I see_, Zordon said at last. _Prepare yourself, Dr. Cranston. I will now teleport you to your first target. You will be camouflaged as the Rangers are, so do not speak to him as a friend. He will not know you._

Bill's eyes widened. "Wait, what?" But his vision filled with grey. The Command Center disappeared. He felt himself moving impossibly fast. Oceans shifted beneath him, land, cities—

He hit his feet, a gun in his hand. He stood in a black alley protected from the torrential rain. Buildings burned in the streets, but the fire's light did not penetrate here. Smoke filled his nostrils, and the sound of rain almost completely drowned out any other.

Yet he heard a yelp of surprise. Bill turned and saw movement in the dark. He suspected Zordon was aiding his vision. "Hello?" he called. No answer. "I've… come to help," he said. "I have a weapon for you to use against the mudmen. It'll freeze them. It may not kill them, but it'll slow them down."

Slowly, a single figure stepped from the darkness. His shirt was torn and saggy from the rain, yet he stood tall. Bill's jaw dropped.

His first target was his old friend Jason.


	50. Episode 10 Ch 4 The Weed

Episode 10, Chapter 4 – Jess

_I hope you're sure about sending him on his own_, thought Jess. _His track record sucks ass_.

Will dodged under a long tentacle and fired a shot at the monster. The white bolt disappeared into the monster's side. The monster didn't even seem to notice. _Yellow can do this_, he answered. _The Dark Dimension changed him_.

_And me_, thought April. Jess felt her surprise; she hadn't meant to transmit that thought to the others.

_That's all well and good_, thought Jess, _but how the fuck do we kill this thing_?

Jess felt a thought from April: images of the rain-soaked civilians they had pulled from the outside of the train. The message was clear: _save them first_.

One brave mudman slipped around the bulky monster and charged at Jess. He wasn't even a challenge; Jess roundhouse-kicked him so hard he flew straight back into the monster, right where Will had shot it just a moment before. The mudman's face froze in a voiceless scream as, slowly, the black of the monster swallowed the mudman whole.

_Shit_, thought Jess. _Don't touch that thing._

_ Duck!_ thought Will.

Jess turned and looked ahead of the train. Though they had detached from the lead car, their train still moved at a quick pace. It would still be some time before they coasted to a stop.

And now they were about to go through a low tunnel.

Jess and Will hit the ground hard, the roof of the tunnel passing just inches above them. Jess' fire sword dropped from her grasp and slipped off the side of the train. They heard the monster collide with the tunnel. There was an ear-piercing roar that reverberated throughout the darkness.

_What happened?_ April asked.

_You two alright?_ asked Jack.

The tunnel ended. _We're fine_, thought Will. He and Jess got to their feet and looked back.

The monster stood exactly where it had been. They could see its outline in the rock above the tunnel behind them as if it had burrowed straight through.

_The monster's fine, too_, thought Jess. _I hate this thing._

The monster roared in response and continued its advance.

_Zordon_, thought Will, _any ideas?_

_ Rita has summoned a Void Weed from the Dark Dimension_, answered Zordon. _Extremely dangerous. Do not touch its body or you will be killed and your essence sealed within the Dark Dimension forever._

_ You could have told us that before we started fighting it_, grumbled Jess.

_Wisdom is earned, not given, Red Ranger._

_ You should write Hallmark cards._

_ So this isn't Squatt or Baboo?_ asked Will.

_No_, said Zordon. _But they are still nearby. You are in grave danger._

_ Aren't we always? _thought Jack.

Jess tried to figure out what the monster looked like, but even with her Ranger's night vision the monster was too dark to make out, as if it was made from pure black, which she supposed it was. It picked up another mudman and launched it at Will, who deflected the squealing body into the window of a passing building.

_How has it been throwing shit at us if it absorbs whatever it touches?_ asked Jess.

_It shifts between our dimension and its own, _said Zordon_. It is vulnerable only when it shifts into this dimension._

_ How does it not absorb the train?_

_Now is not the time for a lesson in trans-dimensional physics._

_ Great. Thanks, Z._

The Void Weed screamed at the two Rangers atop the train. Grey teeth lined the enormous mouth. Jess guessed that the damn thing could swallow the train if it felt like it.

Jess saw images of an idea from the White Ranger. It wouldn't kill the monster, but at least it would keep the humans safe. The other Rangers agreed and set to work.

The train moved slowly enough now that Will and Jess didn't need their magnets anymore. They deactivated them and clipped them to their belts. The Void Weed roared and took several swipes with those black tentacles. Will and Jess danced out of the way, but there wasn't much room atop the train. It was backing them up towards the very front of the train. They'd be trapped soon.

They coasted into the heart of downtown. Skyscrapers passed close by, each one either on fire or partially crumbled. The heat from all the flames invigorated Jess. It made her feel bold.

_Distract it!_ thought Will.

_With pleasure_, thought Jess. She pulled flames from the buildings around them and engulfed the monster. Now she could see its outline clearly. Thin body, no legs, a head wider than the train, hundreds of tentacles that almost resembled hair. It looked like some sick plant from Hell with just a hint of Medusa.

Will leapt high in the air while the monster burned. His plan, Jess knew, was to land behind the monster to divide its attention. They would pull it to the rear car while Jack and April got the last of the civilians into the lead car and then separate it. The lead car could coast to safety while they used the magnets to stop the rear cars with the Void Weed still on top.

Instead, a group of mudmen leapt from the buildings and tackled the White Ranger out of the air. They crashed through the side of a building and disappeared.

_White!_ thought Jess. She lost her hold on the fires surrounding the Void Weed. It shook them off and began to advance on Jess alone. Dozens of mudmen fell from the skyscrapers to form a long shadow behind the monster.

_You two better hurry with those people_, Jess thought to April and Jack.

_Almost done_, thought Jack._ We need another two minutes._

Jess snorted._ Looks like it's up to me again_. She held out her hand. Her trusty fire sword flew from the flames of the nearest building and into her grasp.

"Alright fuckers!" she pointed her sword at the Void Weed and its hundred new friends. "_Come on!"_

She pulled new flame from the buildings and swept it towards the mudmen, but this time the Void Weed was ready. It flung black roots on either side of the train and absorbed the fire before it reached the mudmen. A dozen mudmen leapt over the monster and charged. Jess ducked a slice, cut the mudman in half, parried another cut, kicked a third through the walls of a building, and punched a fourth dead in the face. The wet mud of the face closed around her fist, so she drew fire down her sword and across her arm. It dried the mud enough for her to yank her arm out and render the mudman to dust.

The rest of the mudmen stopped their charge. They considered her with an intelligence they had never shown before. Were they learning? _Could_ they learn?

_Guys_, thought Jess, _something's different about the mudmen._

_ I sense it as well_, said Zordon. _There has been a shift in the Black Ranger's Power. Be wary; this may mean ill news._

Jess let the fire linger on her hand. The Void Weed swept its roots along the side of the train but came up short. April and Jack must have pulled all the humans from the train's sides. The monster rumbled and shot a tentacle straight at Jess. She fell on her back to dodge the blow and rolled frantically to the side as the tentacle swept down at her. In her surprise, she lost the flames she had held in her palm.

Mudmen swarmed her and pinned her to the ground. She tried to pull fire from the buildings, but the monster blocked it all. She started to draw fire from her sword, but a mudman kicked it off the train.

They yanked her to her feet. _Any time, guys_, she thought to the others. But she could see through their eyes: April pulled blood through the veins of a dead civilian to revive her, and Jack was busy with a host of mudmen who had gained entrance to the cars below. No help would come.

The Void Weed shuffled closer to her. Its body ended like a stem, with dozens of tiny root-like legs that made a skittery sound when it moved along the train. Jess tried to yank free, but the mudmen had planted their wet feet and enveloped her arms in their nasty bodies.

There was an explosion in one of the buildings far above them. Jess looked up, but the mudmen didn't seem to hear it.

That was just fine with her.

The White Ranger dove out of a skyscraper window, several fresh tears in his armor and his pistol in his hand. Golden dust of fallen mudmen trailed from his body as he aimed. Jess held as still as the train would let her.

Soon the rain was joined by a new downpour of white bolts. The mudmen screamed and scattered, but Will's aim was sure. Those holding Jess in place crumbled to dust. The Void Weed took a wild swipe. Jess leapt high and to the side, clear off the train. She rebounded off the side of a building and pushed off again, pulling all the flames within the building behind her as she rocketed back to the train fist-first. The Void Weed wasn't fast enough to block her or the fire that followed. She crashed into the remaining host of mudmen with the force of a bomb and sent every last one flying from the train to a painful, fiery death.

She pulled herself from the small crater she had made in the train's top. Will landed heavily next to her a moment later.

They were behind the monster. It turned and began to scuttle towards them.

_We're set_, said Jack.

_Stay beneath_, thought Will. _We're almost out of downtown. Separate the cars on my mark. Then we'll stop the rear car and figure out how to kill this thing._

The buildings around them were growing smaller until they were passing through the slums. Jess' heads-up display showed the Blue and Green Rangers advancing quickly under the Void Weed. It would be in range soon. Jess and Will backed up until they reached the rear of the train.

_We're back in Southside_, thought Jess. They were approaching the spot where they'd jumped onto the train in the first place.

_We already saw that it's deserted_, thought Will._ Good place to stop and fight._

The Void Weed skittered onto the rear car.

Will thought the command. He and Jess turned and tied their magnet ropes to the sides of the rear car while Jack and April shot the connector. The train lurched as Jack and April kicked the cars apart. As one, Will and Jess threw their magnets off the back of the train and held on to the ropes with all they had.

The stop was so sudden that Jess felt like her arms would rip from their sockets. The monster screamed as the car crashed to a halt. The silence that followed was broken only by the never-ending rain.

_Alright, Fearless Leader_, thought Jess as she helped the White Ranger to his feet. The Blue and Green Rangers peered up at them from the tracks with their creepy glowing eyes. _What next?_


	51. Episode 10 Ch 5 The Black Ranger

Episode 10, Chapter 5 – Tom

Darkness swirled away from Tom's vision. His feet hit the ground, and he promptly fell to his knees and vomited. He hauled himself up and looked around. The room was dark, cavernous. Black mist clung to the ground. The walls were jagged and bare save for a few candles of black wax, and a single chair dominated the center of the room atop a raised platform of volcanic rock.

A _throne_.

Tom looked more closely at the coin in his hand. It had blackened with age. A dragon was stamped on its face. It was surprisingly heavy. It had brought him here, he knew. It truly did hold incredible power.

"Older than I expected."

Tom spun, prepared to fight. A large, muscular man stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a skirt of furs and a heavy sword strapped to his back with leather so old it seemed a miracle that it still held together. Tom did not lower his guard.

"Who are you?" Tom asked. "Where am I?"

"I am Goldar," the man said. His voice matched his body: powerful, expansive, with a hint of menace. "You are in the Dark Dimension, the last stronghold of the Black Ranger. You."

Tom glanced at the coin again. "A woman gave me this. I think she died."

Goldar nodded. "Rita. She died protecting what is left of your miserable city, and now _you_ must take up her fight against the evil Rangers who would destroy it."

"Rangers… I don't understand…"

"For the past ten-thousand years your world has been oppressed by one called Zordon. He claims beneficence, but it is a lie. He seeks to enslave your kind for his own purposes. The Power Rangers were a creation in his quest to rule your world, but one Ranger, Rita, freed herself from his grasp. She was wounded in battle, and she has passed her Power to you. Now, I have answered your questions. Answer mine. Who are you? Why did Rita choose you? You don't look worthy of the Black Ranger's Power to me."

Tom had trouble focusing on what had happened before the Black Ranger had saved him. "I'm… Tom," he said. "But I can't… it's so fuzzy…"

Goldar walked towards him, parting the mist on the floor with each step. Without warning he clasped his hands around Tom's temples. Tom saw images pass before him in rapid succession, all the major events of his life from his first martial arts lesson right up to his arrival in the Dark Dimension. He felt an odd detachment from all the images but one: Kim. The sight of her brought back all the old feelings: hope, longing, betrayal, anger. Love.

Goldar released his grip. Tom fell to his knees and fought back the urge to vomit again. "I see," said Goldar. Tom found it hard to breathe in this place. Its power was undeniable, but it made him feel ill at ease, oppressed. "Tell me, _Master_ Tom Oliver: what would you do to save those you love the most?"

Tom's mind went first to Kim. I…" he fumbled. What was he doing here again? He couldn't remember…

"_Answer me!_"

The room closed in around him. Tom's mind narrowed. Kim was all he could think about. She was all he cared about. If he lost her, he would be nothing. Those other memories he had seen, they were nothing compared to her. "I would… do anything," he said.

"Good. You will need that ambition to summon your new power. Look at me." Tom forced himself to look up. For just a moment Goldar was replaced by a demon in golden armor, but as quickly as the image came, it was gone again. "You have been chosen by Rita to become the next Black Ranger. Just before she died, she passed information to me. Now I pass it to you, so that you may take your vengeance."

Mist rose from the ground to form a sphere two feet in diameter. Images began to swirl within until Tom was watching something which should be impossible: Kim. In Cedar Grove.

And five Rangers of different colors were beating her in the street while a man watched with arms folded and a sneer across his face: Billy Cranston.

Tom screamed and leapt at the sphere. He fell through it and collapsed within the mists. Rage welled within him. He breathed in the mist and felt it fuel his rage. It felt _good_. "Where are they?" he growled.

"You will have your chance to kill them all," Goldar assured him. "But first I have another task for you. To slay the snake, you remove the head. Destroy their Command Center and the one called Zordon, and you will destroy the evil Rangers and the friend who betrayed you. You will save your love."

Tom stood. Blood dripped from his palm and disappeared beneath the mist. He had gripped the coin so tightly it had broken skin, but he didn't care. He didn't matter. There was only _her_.

"Tell me what to do," he said.

Goldar held out a hand. In it was a coin as white as Tom's was black. "This belonged to one of their Rangers. It will lead you to their base. Destroy it, then seek out the Rangers and Dr. Cranston and wipe them all out."


	52. Episode 11 Ch 1 An Old Wound

Episode 11, Chapter 1 – Ewan

Ewan pushed through the door that led into the train car, his pistol raised and ready to blast the shit out of whatever might show its ugly face.

Naturally, the car was empty.

Ewan lowered his pistol. He didn't know what the lead car of a train was supposed to look like, but this one made him wonder if he had accidentally stepped into the engine room of the Starship Enterprise. The floor was silver, the walls absolutely crawling with metal power lines that pulsed yellow and orange in time with the _clickety-clack_ of the rails. And at the front of the train sat the very machine he had set out to destroy.

Every power line connected to its sides. It pulsed in time with the lines, as if it were some mechanical heart beating with waves of energy. Except the direction was backwards; the power appeared to be moving _towards_ the machine, not out from it.

_It absorbs the power from the city_, Ewan recalled._ Zordon, where does all this energy go?_

_ To Rita and the Dark Dimension_, said Zordon. _Without this machine, her hold over Cedar Grove's weather will be greatly diminished, and her Dark Dimension will weaken._

_ Give the city power back _and_ make it stop raining? I must be dreaming. Quick, pinch me._

_ I do not possess fingers._

_ It's an expres—_ Something slammed into the back of Ewan's hood. Light danced through his vision as he tumbled sideways and smashed into a wall. His pistol clattered away.

Ewan rolled to his hands and knees and shook the blow off. His vision quickly returned, but he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Resting on its knuckles was a large, slender baboon. It regarded him with expressionless eyes, its tail flicking to and fro behind it.

"I take it you're Baboo," Ewan groaned as he lifted to his feet. The monkey didn't move. Ewan realized that the damned thing wore a monocle. The eye behind it looked human, though the other was as ape-like and wild as the rest of its body.

_Zordon, I didn't expect Baboo to actually be a fucking baboon._

_ She is one of Rita's most dangerous lieutenants_, answered Zordon._ And where she goes, Squatt is never far behind. Use extreme caution._

_ Extreme caution? Don't you say that about all of them? Wait… 'she'?_

Baboo still didn't move. Ewan sighed; she stood between him and his pistol, and the train was too close-quarters for him to try his air bow. He stepped towards her.

"Alright monkey," he said, "I have important work to do. Don't cramp my style, now." She swiped with an arm so fast that he couldn't dodge. It caught him in his ribs and sent him flying against the pulsing walls, which ran a blast of electricity into his body and sent him flying back into the middle of the train car.

_Yellow!_ It was Will, the saintly bastard. _How's it coming?_

Ewan struggled to his feet_. It's fantastic_, he answered. _Thank you so much for sending me on my own._

Will transmitted what he was seeing: all four Rangers desperately dodging that weird black hole with tentacles. _Want to trade?_ Will asked.

_Not really._ Ewan felt guilty for losing a fight to a monkey, and he didn't want to admit it to his friends. _I'll be done with this thing soon_, he thought. He transmitted what he had seen of the train car – minus the goddamn baboon – to Jack. _Any thoughts?_ he asked.

_ I've never seen a device quite like that before_, Jack thought. _Extraordinary. You will have to be careful in destroying it. If it holds as much power as I think it does, one wrong move could wipe out the entire city._

_ Great. Thanks. Keep up the happy thoughts, won't you?_

Ewan turned his attention back to Baboo. _How can I destroy this machine with her kicking my ass around the room?_

"So Babs," he stalled. "Mind if I call you Babs? Come here often? Me, I tend to avoid public transportation. Always end up sittin' by the weirdos, you know?" No response. Baboo's tail swished, but her half-human gaze remained fixed on Ewan's. "…Well aren't you just a red-assed little ray of sunshine. Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I've said that. Well, I'd have three dollars. Don't ask about the other two. Long story."

He flung his arms forward and sent a blast of air right into Baboo's stomach. She lurched backwards but didn't fall, so he pushed harder, focused hard on each and every molecule of the air within the train car and his absolute will that they ram themselves into Baboo's body. He could feel their individual desires, each one wishing to bounce along through the vast amount of space between it and the next molecule. He drew the scattered pieces and forced them together into a solid wall of monkey doom.

Baboo's blue fur stood straight back and her knuckles turned white from digging into the metal floor, but slowly she slid backwards towards the door Ewan had entered just moments before. Baboo snarled. Ewan tried not to get distracted by the size of her rotten fangs.

He shifted the wind so that it blew the door open behind Baboo. He fought the sudden backdraft through the open door – he had almost forgotten that the car still moved at over two-hundred miles an hour. Baboo started to slip through the door, but her arms shot to the sides so that she clung to the frame instead of the floor. No amount of wind would budge her now, but she was far enough away that Ewan could try something else. His left hand shot straight ahead. He turned sideways and drew his right hand close to his chin. His bow of topaz and silver swirled to life in his hands.

"So long, monkey," he said, and he loosed the arrow.

As the wind-string left his right hand, he tumbled through time and space for about the millionth time tonight until he was, yet again, in the body of the old Yellow Ranger.

The string hummed from the shot, and the old Blue Ranger shrieked and twirled into the water in which she stood, her trident splashing heavily to the side. The pool at the base of the little waterfall turned red with the Blue Ranger's blood. The Yellow Ranger tossed her bow to the wind. She sloshed into the water and turned the Ranger over.

The arrow lodged firmly in the Blue Ranger's chest. Blue eyes no longer glowed under the hood. The Yellow Ranger chuckled.

Behind her she heard and felt an absence of being that could only mean one thing. She turned, and from the shadows stepped the Black Ranger.

The Yellow Ranger bent her knee. "I have done as you asked, Master," she said.

Rita's staff collided with the side of her head and sent her sprawling.

"Fool!" Rita spat. "My magic is more powerful on the _living_!"

Serket was at a loss. If she disappointed Rita, her master might never bring her family back to life again. She must appease the Dark Mistress. "I… I am sorry, my master."

"Your idiocy is giving me a headache. Revive her."

"I… how, master?"

Rita raised her staff to strike again, but the Yellow Ranger jumped out of range. "Are you as stupid as you are ugly!? _Wind_! Fill her lungs long enough for me to turn her! NOW!"

The Yellow Ranger jumped to the Blue Ranger's body and pushed air through its mouth. It was difficult work – Rita's transformation of the Yellow Ranger had largely severed her from her elemental powers – but she made due. She pumped on the dead woman's chest again and again to push what little blood remained through broken veins. Soon the body breathed in new life and began to choke on its own blood, but Rita wasted no time. Black mist swirled around them. The Blue Ranger spat a cloud of red and screamed with the life Serket had forced upon her. Birds erupted from the treetops all around them, the scream echoing back and forth through the entire valley. Serket couldn't bear the sound; she fell to her knees and covered her ears, crying through her yellow hood.

But Rita had the Blue Ranger now. When the mist parted, an ape lay where once she had been. Its eyes were half-human, half-ape, just as the Ranger had straddled the line between life and death upon her turning.

"Arise, Baboo," said Rita. "For your resistance I have punished you with this new body." Serket knew the truth: Rita had always been jealous of the Blue Ranger's beauty. She could have turned her into something truly formidable like she had Dredwing or the Green Ranger, but instead she chose this naked ape. "Now you will serve me. Defy me again, and you will wish I had left you dead!"

Ewan tumbled back into his own body, which was still loosing its own arrow. The shock of his vision made him falter, and the arrow went wide. Baboo's eyes locked on the ancient weapon. Recognition filled the human eye, and she shrieked. In a blur of blue she flung herself sideways, grabbed a power line, ripped it from the wall, flung it at Ewan, and, while he dodged the power line, cartwheeled into him and sent him flying into the wall.

Ewan groaned and reminded himself to kill Will later. _Might take me a bit longer than I thought, guys_, he thought to the others. _I found another old Ranger, and she's fucking pissed._


	53. Episode 11 Ch 2 Five Minutes

Episode 11, Chapter 2 – April

April could feel Ewan's emotions, just as she could feel the rain around her, the water flooding the streets and saturating the ground, and the emotions of the other Rangers. She knew she was the only Ranger who had such power. It was beyond what they all felt from each other already; those were more like thoughts, fleeting and ever-changing. This was something deeper. April could sense those emotions which the other Rangers didn't even know they were feeling. If the old Blue Ranger could do the same, then it was no wonder she fell apart when Rita began turning her friends to the side of evil. But April could sense Ewan's deeper emotions, like someone calling you from the shore of a quiet lake, and she knew that he was hiding something from them.

_I have to trust that he has changed_, she thought._ Perhaps he doesn't want us to worry about him._

_ Hey_, thought Ewan, _When I pass by wherever you all are, how about tagging in old Green to give me a hand?_

_ I have some bad news_, thought Will.

_Good_, thought Ewan_. I was starting to feel a little too perky. What's up?_

Will transmitted images of the rail lines: when he and Jess had used their magnets to stop the train in Southside, it had pretty much ripped the tracks to shreds. There was no way anyone could repair it before Ewan's lead car looped back around.

_I'd say you have about five minutes to figure something out_, thought Will.

_ Or the train flies off the tracks and blows away the entire city_, thought Ewan.

_Yep._

_ Why don't you just stop the car?_ asked Jess.

_This thing's like fucking _Speed, thought Ewan_. You know, that 90s movie? I can't slow it down without touching the controls, and I can't touch the controls without shocking myself to hell. And yes, before you ask, I already tried my magnet. Just ripped the rope in half without slowing the train down an inch. You sure you can't repair the tracks?_

_ Not in five minutes_, said Jack_. Even Rangers have their limits._

_ Yeah. Right, sorry for asking. Leave the world-saving to me._

Jess snorted, though whether that was from laughter or getting hit by a piece of flung debris was hard to tell. _Great. We'll just go home then._

_ You know what I mean._

_ Zordon_, thought Will, _can you help us?_

There was a long pause. The Rangers danced around dark tentacles with increasing frustration. _Hmm?_ Zordon thought suddenly. _Oh, Rangers. The machine, yes. It will be delicate work, Yellow Ranger. If you are to succeed, you will need to rid yourself of Baboo._

So that was what Ewan was hiding.

_Baboo's there?_ asked Will.

_Yes_, sighed Ewan. He flashed them an image of a large blue baboon with a monocle. April couldn't shake the feeling that this monster was somehow familiar to her. Then it hit her.

_That's the old Blue Ranger_, she realized.

_How did you know…_ thought Ewan.

_I shouldn't have let you go alone_, thought Will.

_No!_ thought Ewan. _I can do this! Just trust me._

_ That's only gotten us burned tonight_, said Jess. But April felt her soften. The Red Ranger believed in Ewan, even if she didn't realize it yet.

_Four minutes_, reported Jack.

April and the others were getting nowhere with this Void Weed. It simply absorbed whatever they hit it with, and even when they managed to land a blaster shot on the monster while it phased into this world, it did little good but make the darn thing angry. Their only consolation was that it was not terribly fast; the four Rangers could leap backward and always remain clear of the sweeping tentacles. But the Rangers were beginning to get frustrated. No one knew what to do, and Zordon had just checked out in their most desperate hour.

April wasn't so sure she liked being able to know the others' feelings. She had first noticed it when she came out of the Dark Dimension with Ewan. Zordon had said that each of the Rangers had gone through trials that made them stronger. She supposed that this was just a new trick of hers, but it felt like cheating, to always know how the others felt. It was an invasion of their privacy. No one should have that kind of power, to be able to see inside a person's soul like this.

The frustration of the other Rangers continued to gather momentum. April felt herself sharing in the anger which she herself did not feel: anger at Rita, yes, and plenty of suppressed frustration at having never found _any_ of their families, but mostly anger at Zordon for being of so little help. The others grew bold with desperation to end this monster. Jess launched volleys of flames which only served to outline its monstrous form. Will edged closer and closer, heedless of the danger. Jack tried to pin it in place with javelins of rock. And Ewan was trying everything under the sun with Baboo, but his was a losing battle. Baboo was fast, and she knew Ranger weaknesses.

Yet below the rage and the overwhelming sense of the injustice, April found, quite unexpectedly, the bedrocks of each Ranger's character. Ewan would never give up, no matter the odds. Jess would never back down, no matter the pain. Will would always think of others first, no matter the cost. Jack would never break, no matter the strain. These feelings each found their way into April along with the seething anger. They were overwhelming at first, but slowly April filtered the frustration away until there was only virtue remaining.

Then, hardly even knowing how, she pushed these thoughts right back into the other Rangers.

The change was immediate. Everyone took up the fight with renewed vigor. Their minds cleared of the fog Rita's power had lowered over their eyes. It wasn't an enchantment, of course – not the same kind that had taken Ewan away from the girls in the police station, anyway. This had been a very real sort of magic. April had found herself under its spell many times before when she faced her abusive father back in her old life. No spell was cast, but she knew the feeling all the same.

_I am the holder of Harmony_, she thought to herself. _Enemy of Discord. Safekeeper of emotions. My friends will not lose themselves so long as I stand_.

The Void Weed thrust a tentacle underground, which erupted a moment later not two inches from April's face. She leapt back and found that Will was staring at the broken train tracks above them.

_I think I have an idea_, he thought.


	54. Episode 11 Ch 3 The Twelve

Episode 11, Chapter 3 – Bill

Still disguised by Zordon's powers, Bill sprinted through downtown Cedar Grove to his last destination: the Youth Center. Between him and Alpha, they had delivered nine of the twelve freeze guns, and the weird thing was, Bill knew most of the recipients. There was Jason, of course, and Police Officer Stone, who Zordon said had helped the Blue Ranger escape a dangerous situation earlier tonight. Then there was a pretty Australian woman Bill didn't know, named Kat. Then, inexplicably, he had given a gun to Bulk and Skull. Thankfully Zordon wasn't delusional enough to give _each_ of them a gun, but the decision still made Bill wonder: what did Zordon see in other people that he couldn't?

A flash of gray light, and Alpha was sprinting along beside him. "One left," said the robot.

"I have two."

"All three are up ahead. You know them. But first we have to conduct some field tests with these bad boys."

Bill nodded. "I think I'm ready."

"You 'think'? Here, let me take one of those. Maybe with your four eyes trained on one gun you might actually hit something."

Bill wasn't about to argue. He handed one of his two guns to Alpha. Even though Zordon's illusion over him was also giving him the stamina to race through town, he didn't want to press his luck and expect the same kind of treatment for his reflexes. But could Alpha shoot? Bill had figured him to mostly be a maintenance robot for the Command Center. Janitors usually weren't the stars of action films.

They sloshed through a flooded street, and the Youth Center loomed in the darkness before them.

"Shield your eyes," said Alpha. Then louder he called, "Hey! Mud-fucks!"

Bill didn't look away in time. Light flooded from Alpha's face and blinded both Bill and the horde of mudmen in the Youth Center parking lot. Bill lost his balance and toppled over into the water. The sound of Alpha's freeze guns screeched through the air.

"God damn," muttered Alpha a moment later. A hand pulled Bill to his feet, brushed him off, and thrust his wet gun into his stomach. "Some help you were. Hop along, Trickshot."

Bill shielded his face. Alpha's headlight was positively blinding after fumbling around in firelight for so long, but slowly Bill grew accustomed to it.

When his eyes adjusted, his jaw dropped: over three dozen mudmen stood frozen around them. "I do not recall lying submerged for a lengthy duration," he said.

"There's a reason Zordon only needs one of me," said Alpha. He pushed a mudman over as they walked past. It shattered on the ground and disintegrated into golden dust. "Duck, won't you?" This time Bill acted quickly. He hit the deck, and a thin laser erupted from Alpha's head and sliced a wide arc through the parking lot. All the frozen mudmen split in two and disintegrated.

The Youth Center's front doors were shattered beyond repair, and the makeshift barricade behind them was almost gone as well. Bill and Alpha had arrived just in time.

Bill peaked through one of the many holes. "Hello?" he called. "Is anyone alive in there?"

Whispers, a long pause, a shadowed face behind the barricade. "Who are you?" he asked.

Bill sighed in relief. He knew that voice: it was Zack, his tenth target. "We're here to help you," said Bill. He explained the situation – about the Rangers, Zordon, Rita, mudmen, the freeze guns. After this many times, he had gotten pretty good at it. There were more whispers behind the barricade. Alpha tapped his foot in the water. Bill just wanted to get inside and wipe some of the water off his glasses.

Zack returned to the barricade. "We won't let you inside," he said at last, "but we'll take the guns." He moved a few things around to make the hole in the barricade a little wider.

"Like fuck you will," offered Alpha, "we just wiped out every mudman here and you still don't trust us? You fucking pri—"

"That will be fine," said Bill. He elbowed Alpha where his ribs would be, though it probably hurt Bill more than the robot. Bill offered his gun handle-first to Zack. "This one is yours, and yours alone," Bill said. "It will disappear when the crisis is over. We have two more out here, but they are for others inside."

"Who?" Zack asked.

"Rocky," said Bill, "and Adam."

Zack frowned, but nodded. He turned and called for each man. Rocky was first – Bill was still surprised at how fat he had gotten. He took his gun with a sincere "thank you". Adam was next – their last gun to give. He was wincing in pain, but he took the gun anyway.

"You know," said Adam, "all this talk of 'guardian angels', these Power Rangers… Some of us still remember when this city was called Angel Grove."

Bill smiled. He had never been one for sentiments, but tonight had changed him. He fought for Trini, and maybe, just maybe, she was an angel guarding _him_. "You are all guardian angels now."

"But we can't fight those things, can we?"

"Not head-on. Leave that to the Rangers. Your job is to get out of downtown. The army is gathering outside the city, but their weapons won't do anything. Shoot anything you see that isn't human. Never travel alone. And above all—"

But Bill would never finish that sentence. Gray flooded his vision, and suddenly he was teleporting away, across oceans and continents and islands and lights and ships and ice.


	55. Eipsode 11 Ch 4 Zordon

Episode 11, Chapter 4 – Zordon

Stuck for eternity inside the chrono-tank, the seventh essence of Zordon, the last Guardian of the Planet Earth, watched his humans carry out his mission as best as they knew how. They had grown so much in the past few hours. He knew he would never be able to tell them just how proud he was of their progress. Five young humans against the might of the Dark Dimension. The old Rangers whom Zordon had personally chosen would never have stood a chance. _These_ were the right ones for the job. Zordon's wisdom had not failed him, after all.

He surveyed Cedar Grove. Four of the Rangers battled the Void Weed south of the river. The Yellow Ranger stood alone before Baboo inside the train, with Squatt not far behind them both. Professor Cranston raced towards the Youth Center, and Alpha 5, having just given a gun to a young man named Justin Stewart, teleported to join him. A third of downtown was completely destroyed, though most of the suburbs remained intact. Those civilians who had not yet been enslaved or killed by Rita's forces clung to the shadows as they made their escape.

And those chosen few who had received freeze guns had, between them, already destroyed over two-dozen of Rita's minions.

Bill's idea about the guns may very well save the city. _Have I made the right decisions tonight?_ Zordon reflected. He had tried to appear confident and wise before his Rangers, but here, utterly alone in his Antarctic Command Center, he fooled no one. He was scared. His friends, those who had first journeyed to Earth with him, had died so long ago that he couldn't even remember their names. Splitting himself into seven had been a desperate act. Recruiting humans to join with his essences had been even more so. He was shunned by his kind, he knew. The moment he had split himself, his race had branded him an exile. They would never send another Guardian to help him.

If only they had known the truth. It was either split, or watch his world burn. And now he might watch it burn anyway, all because of his own silly mistakes.

_Wisdom_, he thought bitterly, _is little use without knowledge. There is always some piece of the puzzle which I lack, and if the Rangers fail tonight, then we shall see all of my work undone by my own careless choices. What good is Wisdom on its own?_

Zordon no longer recalled how long he had been on Earth. Some millions of years, at least. At that time, his kind had been at the peak of their civilization. They had long since mastered the challenges which fate had thrown them: space travel, world hunger, illness, even mortality itself. They pushed further and further away from their home world, seeking new civilizations with which to converse and share their knowledge.

That was when they first discovered Dark Matter.

Zordon himself had led a team to the primitive planet. Its reptilian inhabitants spoke of an old legend in which their hero had trapped a dragon deep underground, where it could no longer terrorize the good people on the surface. Zordon and his team had foolishly used their technology to locate a strange energy reading deep within the planet. There, they had found a black crystal, which they had taken aboard their ship for study.

Oh, if Zordon could only travel back to that day, when he had set such evil free from its terrestrial prison!

One by one Zordon saw his team change. Conversations became arguments. Arguments became fights. Fights became murders. By the time Zordon had discovered the source, it was too late: Dark Matter had escaped into the galaxy. His people knew that their own foolish prodding had been the cause for such evil. Their exploration teams morphed into protectors, assigned to one planet for so long as that planet resisted evil. Zordon chose the very planet where it had all begun, along with six of his closest companions. But upon their return, they found that Dark Matter had already made the planet its haven, the reptilian inhabitants all but wiped out and the rest of the biological population not far behind.

Theirs was a struggle that spanned millennia. The old civilization was lost, but another slowly rose to power under the gentle guidance of Zordon and his companions. One by one Zordon's companions were lost to the battle against Dark Matter, and now, on this lonely planet galaxies away from his home, Zordon's war would soon reach its climax.

_Earth was my greatest mistake_, b_ut tonight it may be my redemption._

Tom Oliver's consciousness returned to his body within the city. Zordon knew the time had come. The Ranger held the White Ranger's coin in his hand and began to use it to locate the Command Center.

Zordon set to work.

What knowledge he had was stored in the Command Center's databanks. He used it now to unlock the last of the technologies at the Rangers' disposal. This may mean that the Black Ranger could access it as well, but Zordon believed that it was the right decision. His Rangers would absolutely lose without this last bit of technology from his homeworld.

_May the citizens of Cedar Grove forgive me_, he thought. His mind wandered to Officers Bulkmeier and Skullovich at the head of the large group of souls the Rangers had saved from the slave train earlier that evening. Several spoke in whispers, mostly the older ones who, Zordon knew, had lived in this town all their lives. "Guardian angels," they called the Rangers. "They saved us; they'll save _Angel_ Grove."

Zordon felt a small wellspring of joy rise within his essence. He looked inside those who spoke and saw in them infinite possibilities. He could only marvel at how far these creatures had come. Here he was, a being of profound advancement, yet he had but seven aspects to himself. These humans had the capacity for anything. No two were alike, not even those born of the same womb. A million aspects within one soul.

_They should have no right to hope. Their futures rest on the shoulders of five battered and broken youngsters, a professor who spends his days as an outcast within his own field of study, a homicidal robot… and me. Yet hope they do. What fools, and yet… what beauty, to face such disaster and still trust in a savior._

The shadows around the edges of the Command Center began to darken. The Black Ranger was on his way.

Zordon took one last look at his beloved Rangers. So long as they fought, part of him would always protect this planet. Humans had the potential for true greatness, he knew. There was no other species in the universe quite like them.

Laughter filled the chamber, bringing Zordon back into the present moment. The Black Ranger strode from a dark alcove looking for all the world like the battle was already won. As he stepped into the light, an immense shadow trailed behind him: Rita Repulsa.

"Greetings, Tom Oliver," said Zordon.

The Ranger leaned back and laughed. His shadow didn't move at all. "Oh don't bother with pretenses, you old puddle," said the Ranger. His voice was two: Tom Oliver's… and Rita's. The latter was much, much louder. "You know who you're talking to."

"I do, Rita."

"And you know why my puppet is here."

"I know why you send others to do your work for you, yes." Zordon felt the white Power Coin within Tom's hand. Tom had used it to get here, but it had also opened up an avenue that Zordon violently prayed he could use. "Tom," said Zordon, "Rita Repulsa is not dead. She has tricked you into evil. Do not believe her."

The shadow moved. In response, the Black Ranger slammed a fist down into a console. Sparks flew from the machine. Zordon felt a stab of pain as part of himself was severed from the Command Center. "The human is mine!" That voice was all Rita. "Don't think you can pull any of your silly tricks. My hold on him is strong."

Zordon could see that it was. Her shadow wrapped tightly around his body in all places but his left palm, where the white coin rested.

"Your hold on him is nowhere near as strong as the Dark Matter's hold on you, Rita."

"Your kind has ruled the Earth for too long," said the Black Ranger in his two voices. Tom's mouth, Rita's words. No – the Dark Matter's words. Rita was its puppet, just as Tom was hers. And Rita had no idea. Zordon pitied her, even as she forced her puppet to destroy him. "You aim to subjugate us and bend us to your own will." Tom flipped his pistol from his waist and casually fired a shot. It left a dark scorch mark in the wall. "You think you can manipulate us from your cozy little fortress."

_Cozy_ was hardly the word for the Antarctic. Zordon and Alpha had moved the Command Center around regularly, as a safety precaution. In all honesty, the main reason Zordon had moved it here was because he was fond of the penguins who nested nearby.

"You weak, pathetic thing," the Ranger spat. "You infest the humans with yourself and your lies. You control them. You force them to give up their lives for you."

"No, Rita," said Zordon. "That is what you have done. My Rangers join willingly, while you enslave your own race."

"I am no more human than you are, Zordon. Not anymore."

"I… am sorry for what I did to you. Had I known that the Black power would attract the Dark Matter as it did, I would never have given it to you. It opened your soul to the Dark Matter, and it consumed you. Please forgive me, Rita."

_I have waited ten-thousand years to say that._

The sudden change took both the Ranger and his shadow aback. The shadow collected itself before the Ranger did. "Even now you lie," said Rita's voice. The shadow twisted; the Ranger fired a volley around the room. One black bolt crashed into Zordon's tank. Zordon cried out in pain. The room flickered, warped. He saw a brief glimpse of the past, when his original Rangers had stood before him to collect their coins. How could he not have foreseen their downfall?

"It is time to end your misery," said the two voices.

"End me," groaned Zordon, "and you… sever your ties to… your own power."

The Black Ranger laughed. "You and I both know that my Power no longer comes from you. Ending your wretched existence will only strengthen me. I don't even need the energy from that train." The Ranger laughed again. "But of course, I'll gladly welcome whatever I can get!"

"My Rangers will… stop you."

"Your Rangers will die by my hand." That voice was mostly Tom's. "They will suffer for what they have done."

Zordon searched the essences within the Black Ranger. He had long watched Tom Oliver; in his youth, he would have made an ideal White Ranger, just as Bill would have made a perfect Green Ranger. Funny how fate works itself into loops and unexpected turns. But where once Zordon had seen within Tom the essences of Honor, Duty, Passion, Courage, and yes, Ambition, now he saw only Wrath, Vengeance, Lust, Ambition, Jealousy. Rita kept these at the forefront of the man's being. She was denying those other parts of him that made him who he was. This was how the Dark Matter changed people. This was how Rita had warped the old Rangers into her monstrous lackeys.

And this was why Zordon had given April the ability to see into the souls of others.

"Do what you must," said Zordon. His program finished downloading in the background. It was time.

The Black Ranger laughed and pulled a black dagger from the shadows. "Gladly," he said.

In his final act, Zordon snatched Bill Cranston out of Cedar – no, _Angel_ – Grove and prayed to the gods of his ancient race that his Wisdom had led him true.


	56. Episode 11 Ch 5 Sacrifice

Episode 11, Chapter 5 – Will

Will's mind worked quickly, but the others followed his train of thought (so to speak) and agreed that they had little choice. There just wasn't enough time to come up with a Plan B. His plan was based off a few too many guesses for anyone's liking; if they weren't so desperate, no one would have ever gone along with it, Will least of all.

But they were out of time. T minus two minutes until the train arrived.

The others leapt to their tasks with that kind of vigor that only desperation could produce. Jess pulled her sword from a fiery building and used it to sling fireballs at the back of the Void Weed's head. The monster turned and gave chase. Jack slipped past, leapt up to the train rails, and set to work bending them in the right direction. April held out a hand, and her sapphire trident exploded from the flooded street. She dipped its head into the water and sent a cresting wave at the monster. The tide clashed against Jess' fire and sent a pillar of steam over the area, outlining the monster in the mist and obscuring its vision while Will and Jack worked frantically at the next part of their insane plan.

_When are we going to see _your_ weapon, White?_ Jess asked.

_I… don't think I have one._ Will had been wondering the same thing all night, but each time he thought of a sword, or a spear, nothing felt right. Maybe the White Ranger just didn't get a weapon. Or maybe he just wasn't doing it right.

_We could all die_, Will thought to himself._ I told the others I was sure this would work, but… I have no idea what I'm doing._

All of Will's insecurities flooded his thoughts and blinded him to the task he was supposed to be doing. This whole night had been one long exercise in improvisation. Will was supposed to lead the Power Rangers, but how was he supposed to lead others when he couldn't even lead himself? In his old life he had gotten into a pre-med program, but that wasn't medical school yet. His grades this past semester weren't good enough for the programs he thought he wanted to get into. But did he even want to be a doctor? Was that how he wanted to spend his days? He didn't know. He simply didn't know. He couldn't guess what kind of future he wanted; how was he supposed to know what to do in the present? Being a Power Ranger was a class with no teacher, where a failing grade meant the deaths of millions and possibly the destruction of the world. How was anyone supposed to do this and not panic?

Will felt a quiet wave of energy from April's direction. It wasn't anything tangible, but Will's doubts began to lighten. Honor shone through his insecurity and cast a spotlight on that part of him that was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of others. His master's voice echoed through his thoughts, something he always said when Will felt unsure: _your parents named you _Will_ for a reason._

And, just like that, he tumbled through time and space and fell into the broken body of the old White Ranger.

Pain seared through his entire body. His right leg lay several feet away in a bloody pool, and both arms hung broken at his sides. His Ranger's hood was down. Blood stung his eyes, but there was no way to wipe it away.

Rita Repulsa, clad in a gown of black silk that fluttered in a light breeze, stood over the White Ranger and laughed. Cruelty filled her cat-like eyes, and wisps of smoke flitted off the ends of her dress.

"Where is Zordon now?" she taunted. "He has abandoned you."

The White Ranger fought to speak, but the pain and his own weakness were too much.

Rita absent-mindedly poked at his leg stump with her black staff. The Ranger cried out. Blood gushed from his mouth and washed over the lion emblem on his chest. Were it not for his suit, he'd have been dead long ago. He wondered if he shouldn't just remove the suit and be done with it. But then Rita would win. He had to hold out, at least a little while longer.

"You think you're so clever," Rita continued, "banishing my minions like you did. You have only delayed the inevitable. I will find them again, and their return will complete my domination of this world which has spurned me for so long."

The Ranger's heart fell. Zordon had warned him that Dark Energy had taken control of Rita, but what she just said confirmed all of his fears: the Dark Energy's control over Rita was complete. She was no longer a human; she was hardly more than a puppet.

"Earth teems with conscious life demanding for someone to rule them," said the Dark Energy through Rita's mouth. "Once I claim this world, other systems will fall to my might. I will have my revenge on the world which spawned Zordon's kind. I will conquer all until only they remain, an insignificant blot of light within a sea of perfect darkness. No one can stop me!"

Her talk of planets and banishments had given the Ranger an idea. It would end his life, but he had lived hundreds of years. All of his attachments to his former life were long gone. And he would die soon, anyway. He set to work for one final banishment while the Dark Energy continued its blissful monologue.

"Yes, you fought valiantly. Isn't that what you want to hear? _Honor_. Pah! Zordon's ideals are a joke. Humans are base creatures, good for but one purpose: enslavement. Your Honor has only led you to this moment. Tell me… was it worth it? Do you feel _honorable_? Those who loved you in life are long dead. No one remembers you now. Without others to tell of your deeds, your Honor is as worthless as your broken body is now." Rita stepped on his shattered arm. He screamed and began to choke on his blood. He would die in a matter of seconds; it was now or never.

The White Ranger thought of teleportation – light travel. He felt the glow from his bloody chest emblem. Rita stomped on his chest and knocked the wind out of him, but he wouldn't need breath anymore. He focused all his consciousness inward, through his brain, down his spine, and then – bam! – out his chest in a rush of white light that blinded Rita and carried her up into the stars, as far as the Ranger's consciousness could take her before he died. His vision darkened as a small red planet approached. The Ranger's concentration faltered; his body was shutting down.

_You will not stop me_, said a dark voice. _I will return! So long as I am connected to this world, there is nothing you can do to prevent my rise. Darkness will fall upon your world. I will blot out your pathetic sun. I will drown your kind in the seas, bury them beneath the earth, cut them to ribbons with the air itself. They will burn until all is ash. You have failed, Power Ranger. Here you banish me, but not because of Honor. You do it as a legacy to yourself. Pathetic excuse of a Ranger. Your weakness only proves my point: humans are nothing without a greater power to guide them_.

The White Ranger's body failed him. Despair filled his thoughts during those last seconds, as the truth behind the Dark Energy's words sapped his will to see this banishment through. Honor, the last of the great Rangers, had failed. His light crashed into the red planet's northern pole just as darkness, sorrow, and death fully engulfed the Ranger.

Will fell back into himself, gasping for air. The sweet relief from pain overpowered him, and for a moment all he could do was fall to his knees and breathe.

_White_, thought Jess, _you okay?_

_ He had a vision_, thought April. _A difficult one. But you have to get up now, White Ranger. The train's almost here_.

Will wondered how he was supposed to do anything after what he had just seen. _I died_, he thought, not caring if the others heard his despair. _I mean, it wasn't me, but I've seen death and felt pain unlike anything I could have imagined. He was so alone at the end… Was that what my parents felt when they died? Or my sister?_ Will had never allowed himself to think about his family on the night they died, but the stress of today had broken down his old walls.

_Will_, urged Jess, not even caring about keeping their identities hidden in case Rita could hear their thoughts_, come on, snap out of it. The train's like thirty seconds away._

_ I just…_ he thought, but there was no way to explain the profound sense of hopelessness that still bled into him from the old Ranger's memories. He couldn't bear to think of his family feeling the way he did now; the mere thought crippled him and kept him on his knees, barely remembering to breathe.

_There's a time and a place to mourn_, said April with the kind of gentleness that only someone who had been there before could have. _But right now we have a war to fight._

_ Tracks are in place_, thought Jack. _Yellow, get ready to get out of that train!_

_ Sure thing_, thought Ewan. _As soon as I get this monkey off my fucking face!_

_ Void Weed's out of position_, said Jack. _Red, it's not following you anymore._

_ Shit! _ thought Jess. She threw more fireballs, but the Void Weed had lost interest in the fire it couldn't see. It began whipping its tentacles through the air.

_It's absorbing the steam_, said Jack.

_ Will_, thought April. She didn't need to say anything else; the warmth in her voice was enough. Will was not alone.

He hauled himself to his feet. His HUD located the Void Weed through the cloud of steam. _The old Ranger stared into the abyss_, he thought, _and he did what he had to do, but his doubt at the last minute cost him dearly. That won't be me!_ There would be a time and place to mourn, just as April had said. But first things first. Misery had no place within the mind of a Power Ranger.

_Get rid of the steam,_ he thought.

The Red and Blue Rangers did so. Will leapt dangerously close to the Void Weed and fired a volley of white pistol blasts. The monster lashed out at him, but he ducked under the tentacle and backed up, dodging more and more swipes. Jess tried to join him, but April held her back. The more Rangers, the more likely they could get tangled up with each other.

_A few more feet, White_, said Jack. _Train'll be here in ten seconds!_

_I can't get Baboo off me!_ yelled Ewan.

_Just get out of there!_ April thought back. _Don't sacrifice yourself to kill her!_

_Sacrifice_, thought Will. _I do what Honor demands_. He held still in just the right spot. A black tentacle ripped through the disappearing fog and grabbed him around the waist. _This is for my family_.


	57. Episode 12 Ch 1 Revealed

Episode 12, Chapter 1 – Jack

The train car whipped around the bend at two-hundred miles an hour, but Jack was ready. He leapt high off the tracks. The train car screeched off the tracks and arched through the air. The Yellow Ranger, covered in a mass of angry blue fur, fell out the car's rear door. The Void Weed opened its enormous mouth and caught the train car between its teeth. The Yellow Ranger and Baboo splashed down into the street. Jack landed next to his sister, hoping desperately that Will's plan would work.

One long tentacle still clung to the White Ranger's waist. Will's suit was quickly decaying wherever the Void Weed touched him. Crackles of white and dark light sparked from his suit; soon there wouldn't be anything left between Will's body and pure Dark Energy.

At least, that's what Jack assumed this monster was: a manifestation of Dark Energy in this dimension. No one's power suit had been able to get a proper reading on the damned thing. They were operating on too many unknown variables. It made Jack more uneasy than he cared to say. _Be the Keeper of Strength_, he reminded himself. _Be strong for the others_.

The Void Weed struggled with the train car sticking halfway out its mouth. It reeled backwards, unable to phase back to its own dimension while it still touched a Power Ranger. It let go of Will, but the White Ranger leapt forward and clung to the tentacle. So far, Will's idea had worked: as long as the Void Weed stayed in contact with a being infused with Zordon's pure energy, it would be unable to shift back into its own dimension of evil.

The Void Weed seemed to realize this as well. It tried to shake Will off, but he held on with an iron grip, his hands and chest smoking heavily from the contact. Out of options, the Void Weed began to ingest the train car lodged in its throat. Jack had to wait for just the right moment; too early and he would kill them all. Too late, however, and they would lose their only chance of destroying this thing.

The train car inched further and further into darkness. More smoke curled from Will as he was whipped to and fro.

"Hurry up and blow it," Jess said from beside him.

"Not yet," said Jack.

Just then, Jack felt something tear at his chest. He jumped back in surprise. From Jess' reaction, she had been hit as well.

"The fuck was that!? she cried. "What hit us?"

_It's not _us, thought April. _Something's wrong with Zordon_.

_Then we need to go help him_, thought Jess.

_No_, thought Jack. _We're needed here_.

_Actually_, groaned Ewan, _you're needed here. Help please!_

The Yellow Ranger popped out of the flooded street nearby, a screeching lump of dark blue still attached to his body. April leapt across the road to assist him, sliding across the water's surface like some kind of street surfer.

Another jolt of pain cut through the Rangers' chest emblems. Jack forced himself to focus on the Void Weed and was surprised to find that it had almost consumed the entire train already.

Time to act.

He recalled the train's inner layout from what he had seen through Ewan's vision. So many conduits; if he could twist just one…

Having no idea whether or not this would work, he sent his power within the train car and felt around for any metal conduits. _Metal is just purified earth_, he thought. _I bent the train rails with my hands; I can bend a metal pipe with my mind_.

He felt around the train until he found one of the conduits through which the city's energy was running. _Time to light it up_, he thought. Then to the Rangers he added, _Here it goes!_

Jack's grasp on the conduit was loosening, as if it was moving away from him at an incredible speed. He put all his power into giving it a firm twist. Instantly he lost his hold on the conduit, for it was obliterated within an atomic chain reaction that built and built and built until it reached critical mass and released its energy in an almighty explosion that sent beams of light out the ends of each of the Weed's tentacles and orifices. Jack's HUD tracked the amount of power growing within the Void Weed's body as the explosion continued to gain intensity. His jaw dropped; the blast was far greater than he had anticipated, easily more than any bomb yet created on Earth.

Now he depended on the Void Weed to keep the Rangers from destroying the city and, possibly, the entire country.

_I might have overdone it_, he thought.

_How much fucking energy was in that train!?_ Jess thought.

The Void Weed's body looked like space itself, with more and more tiny holes of light shining through its pitch-black exterior. The monster was fighting to stay alive.

And so was Will.

Spots of light hit his body and pushed him away from the monster. His hand slipped; now he clung to the Void Weed with one arm. The tentacle waved back and forth so quickly that he couldn't catch it again. So many shafts of light poured from the monster's body now that Jack felt like he was at some hallucinogenic rave party.

Jack's HUD scanned the monster again and sounded an alarm in his ear.

_It's about to blow!_ he thought to the others. _Take cover!_

_Not without Will,_ thought Jess.

_No!_ thought Will_. Get out of here!_

_You're not the boss of me,_ thought Jess. She sloshed into the flooded street towards the mass of black and white.

_I am your leader,_ thought Will. _And I say_—

The monster's mouth opened wide, and a blast of white fire erupted straight out, blowing a clean hole through a nearby building. The monster's body turned pure-white. For the briefest of moments, everything was silence: the rain hung in mid-air, the monster stopped screaming, the Rangers stopped thinking.

Then the Void Weed exploded.

Jack's hood protected his eyes and ears from the blast, but even with its aid his head still rung. At the last moment he had made a low wall of rock to fall behind. White light blasted through the street so pure and strong that there were no shadows. The buildings around him crumbled to dust and were swept away. Chunks of the street itself lifted off and were cast into oblivion, yet still Jack's wall kept him safe.

But as his vision returned to him, the wall was nowhere to be seen. In the end, the blast obliterated it all.

He climbed to his feet and told his suit to scan his body for injuries, but nothing happened. The sky was darker than it had been before; he could hardly see a thing. He looked down at his hands and tried to scan them but stopped. There were no gloves.

He wasn't wearing his suit.

He felt his body and confirmed his fears. He wore only his green gi and the slick pair of glasses Alpha had given him. He felt sluggish and helpless. Where was his suit?

Flakes of snow fluttered onto his face. No, not snow. Ash.

His eyes adjusted to the darkness rapidly, until he realized that, as his eyes adjusted, the world actually was becoming lighter. The clouds were separating. The rain was lessening.

When the first streetlight hummed to life in the far distance, Jack understood: their plan had worked. The city had power again.

_But I don't. What happened?_

In the growing light he could see the large crater where the Void Weed had been. It had to be at least a hundred meters across, and there, lying at the edge, was a pair of bodies atop a small circle of untouched ground.

Jack stumbled over debris towards the bodies. He didn't shout, in case there were enemies nearby. Was he the only one still alive? He didn't see where April and Ewan were before the blast. Jess had been running towards the monster. And Will…

If he was dead, then it had been by his own choice. A noble way to go. But Jack hoped desperately that he had somehow survived.

Water sprayed from a busted underground pipe near the edge of the crater. Jack edged around the pipe and slipped and slid his way around the edge of the crater.

Will and Jess lay together on a circle of perfect asphalt. Like Jack, they wore only their Ranger gis. Jess stirred as Jack approached.

"He saved me," she mumbled, answering Jack's question before he even had to ask. "Will jumped to me right when the fucker exploded and…" she coughed violently and groaned, holding her stomach in obvious pain.

"Guys!"

Jack turned to see April supporting Ewan on her shoulder. Ewan's face was bleeding furiously from several claw marks, and he was limping on one leg.

"Is Will…" April started, but she stopped as soon as she saw him lying at Jack's feet. Her eyes widened in horror.

Now Jack looked closely at Will and realized what April had seen. Will's hands and neck had turned a deep black. Jack knelt and opened the front of Will's gi.

"Fuck me…" said Ewan.

Every inch of Will's body that had touched the Void Weed – his hands, arms, neck, chest, and especially his waist – was a deep black and covered in blistering pockets of dying skin. Jack wanted to check for a pulse but didn't want to touch Will's blackened neck. The smell of charred flesh was overpowering. Jack fought back his gag reflex. Ewan, clearly, didn't try to fight his.

A light breeze wandered across the crater, and Will stirred. He feebly opened an eye and saw the other Rangers standing over him. "Hey guys," he groaned. "Where's your suits?"

"I can answer that."

The breeze picked up, and Jack realized that there was a shadow growing at the base of the crater. The twins helped Will sit up, though he was in too much pain to move. The shadow in the crater rose into the air as a sphere of black. Below it, shadow itself appeared to solidify. The sphere rose higher and higher until it was level with the Rangers. Then the blackness swirled away, and a lone figure stood atop a pillar of night.

"Greetings, Rangers," said the figure. It stepped forward. The shadow pillar moved with it as it walked, so that it was always level with the Rangers.

"Who are you?" Jess demanded.

"The Black Ranger," whispered April. The newcomer stopped and looked them over one by one. His gaze lingered on Will.

"You're Rita?" Ewan asked. "You sound like a dude. Should we call you 'Rito' or something?"

"Rita is dead," said the Black Ranger. "As is Zordon. I have destroyed your Command Center, and now I will destroy you. Yes, even you, Will."

"How… do you know me?" Will asked. From the sound of it, it was all he could do just to speak.

The Black Ranger laughed. "I'm sure your parents named you Will for a reason."

The color drained from Will's face. He couldn't speak.

The Black Ranger pulled down his hood. Jack and Ewan's jaws dropped. The man standing before them was Master Tom, Will's adopted father.


	58. Episode 12 Ch 2 Retaliation

Episode 12, Chapter 2 – Private Ryan Scott

It had taken them all night to get this far, yet by his estimate they still had fifteen miles to the city.

Private Scott had been enjoying a day of leave for the Fourth of July. He hadn't seen his family in six months, and for one glorious afternoon of sunshine, and barbeque, and touch football, all had been as it should be.

Then his brother-in-law had come running out of the house. He was shouting something about a terrorist attack in Cedar Grove. Ryan had thought that there had been a bombing, or terrorists had taken a commercial airliner and rammed it into downtown.

He wasn't prepared for the truth.

The reporter spoke frantically over footage taken from a helicopter. The sun was setting behind the downtown skyscrapers while flames and an army tore through the streets. The camera zoomed in on what looked like a gorilla wearing golden armor, who promptly threw a ball of flame at the heli. The footage spun within the broken copter until a sudden stop. The picture froze on four hooded figures in white, green, red, and blue.

"These are our targets," boomed Major Strong. The man's voice matched his name perfectly. He stood before Private Ryan Scott and the rest of the patchwork company – nearly two-hundred men and women hastily pulled from leave because they were closest to Cedar Grove. "Cedar Grove has lost all power and communications. We have also lost the drones we've sent over the city. Yes Private?"

"What about sat?" someone asked.

"Any satellite that tries to scan the city shorts out," said Major Strong. "We've lost nearly half a dozen eyes up there. Whatever these terrorists are using to jam us, we've never seen anything like it. We've called you all from holiday as a last resort. You boys – and girls – will be joining another company and one or possibly two armored divisions to take the city back."

The same private raised his hand again. The Major nodded at him. "With all due respect sir, do we have any more information? Which companies are we joining? Which armored division? And how many terrorists are there? Who's leading them? We have no information, sir."

"You think I don't know that!?" blasted Strong. No one moved. Strong's muscles nearly ripped through his uniform. A vein in his bald head was nearly set to blow. "We are facing a new threat here, soldiers. The fact is, there _is_ no more information. Blackout radius around the city is nearly four-hundred miles. I say you 'might' be joined by armored divisions because, right now, any machine that crosses the blackout line goes dark faster than you can say "al Qaeda." In case you haven't figured it out yet, we sit right on the edge of that blackout line. It's two-hundred miles to the city, but since the blackout renders all of our transports useless, we've thrown together a backup plan." Major Strong reached behind him and lifted a bicycle into view. "Hope you've all been keeping up with your cardio," he said. "You're in for a long ride."


	59. Episode 12 Ch 3 Reconing

Episode 12, Chapter 3 – Will

_ Your parents named you Will for a reason._

Will was sure it was some cruel joke, that perhaps Rita's dark magic was creating this illusion. But Rita didn't know who the Rangers were. There was no way she could make so personal an illusion… was there?

"The fuck's he talking about, Will?" said Jess. "Who is this guy?"

Will's mind jumped back to the day his family died, much in the way his suit had taken him into the memories of the former Ranger, only these were his own. His parents and sister had been on their way to one of his martial arts tournaments when their car got T-boned in an intersection. Drunk driver. Will's martial arts master, a man named Tom Oliver, had driven him straight to the hospital, where Will watched his family flatline one by one. The doctors hadn't been able to save any of them. In a cruel twist of irony, the only one who had survived was the other driver.

That was eight years ago now, but Will had never forgotten what Master Tom had told him then. "Listen," he had whispered, "this is going to be harder than anything you've ever faced before. I know how important your family was to you. Your parents, your sister… they were really amazing people, and nothing will ever take that away from them _or_ you. You are their legacy now. You have the opportunity to ensure that their goodness is not forgotten. _They named you Will for a reason_. You have the willpower to get through this."

"I'm scared," Will had said. He was just a kid then, barely thirteen years old.

"It's alright to be scared," said Tom. "But it's like the Green Lantern comics, right? The good guys – the Lanterns – controlled their emotions and fought using their will, while the bad guys like Sinestro fought using fear. Green Lantern mastered his fears and became the greatest guardian Earth had ever seen!"

They both chuckled. "I'm not saving the Earth," Will pointed out.

"No." Master Tom chuckled again. He rubbed Will's head in that way all children hate. "Not today, at least. But think about what I said. Your parents named you after the single greatest driving force in the universe. They named you Will for a reason. They knew you would do great things someday. And… I want to help make that happen. I'll always be there for you buddy. You're not alone."

Aching pain brought Will back to the present. His wounds from the Void Weed were moving deeper into his body.

Master Tom smirked at the Rangers from his pillar made of shadow. "Gotta say, I was pretty surprised to learn that _you_ were the Power Rangers," he said. "You had all the makings of a superhero, Will. Orphaned. Taken in by a brilliant-but-distant master. Trained extensively in martial arts. Eager to help others in a way that you never were. And now the Rangers have become a symbol of hope for the city." Master laughed. "Why, you're fuckin' Batman!"

_He used to think I was the Green Lantern._

"This… isn't you, Master," said Will. Speaking was still difficult. With his wounds looking so bad on the outside, he didn't want to think about how they looked on the inside.

Master Tom continued. "You had all the makings of a hero, Will, you really did… except for one little problem. Heroes don't exist in real life. This isn't some comic book. This is the real world. Here, darkness always prevails. Your family is dead, and it isn't because some lonely writer wanted to make you more relatable or give you some noble struggle, no… _It's because your parents were fucking stupid_. They were late for your tournament because your sister wouldn't get ready, so they were speeding to make up time. And you know what happened, Will? They didn't pay attention, and they crashed. No heroic tragedy. No great struggle against evil. Just death and darkness. This is the way of life."

"This isn't you," groaned Will. "Rita's… controlling you."

"Rita was the only one to see the truth," said Master Tom. "She showed me Zordon's oppressive ways. It's you who was being controlled."

"Man," groaned Ewan, "fuck this! Look, Master Tom, or Rita, or whatever you really are. We've beaten everything you've thrown at us! We aren't like the old Rangers; we're stronger. Just admit that you can't win and go back to the fucking planet you crawled from before we _send_ you there. Forcefully."

The Black Ranger stepped closer, stopped, and looked past the Rangers. "I never liked you, Ewan," he said. "You always had such a mouth." A light breeze hit Will from behind, and a blur of blue leapt onto Master's shadow pillar. "Your victories have been temporary at best." Baboo crouched next to Master Tom and sniffed the air while he talked. "You have caused our side a few petty setbacks, it is true, but there is nothing you can do to stop us now. I will free this city. Squatt! Here!"

The ground rumbled, and the crater wall behind the Rangers exploded in a shotgun blast of rocks and broken asphalt. The Rangers grunted in pain from the rocks as they shielded themselves and Will. From the ground came a creature which flew right past them and landed heavily next to Master. It rose to a towering height; Master Tom looked hardly more than a child next to this thing. Muscles rippled under gray skin and a sleeveless leather jerkin. His pants were tattered at his calves, and he wore knee and elbow pads of metal with small spikes on the ends. His jaw jut so far out from his face that his mouth stood permanently open, with fangs sticking up in front of his upper lip.

"The old Green Ranger," said Jack. Squatt spat out a mouthful of rock and grinned stupidly at them.

"Yes," said Master, "a preview of what's to come for you, Jack. But let's get down to business, shall we? You've slain my master, and now I've slain yours, but we're still not even."

"Your master?" echoed Ewan. "Rita? We haven't even seen her! Trust me, we'dve happily knocked her off if we could, but unless she turned herself into a mudman somewhere down the line—"

"DON'T," screamed Master Tom, "LIE. TO ME. I saw her die! I saw the five of you beating my Kim within an inch of her life. You have much to answer for."

"Who the fuck is Kim?" asked Jess.

"Kardashian?" offered Ewan.

The others looked to Will, but he only shook his head. Kim? Will had never heard of anyone by that name, but then Master Tom had a funny way of avoiding his past.

"I promise you," said April, "we have never seen Rita or anyone named Kim. Rita has deceived you. She lives, and she is manipulating you from the shadows, just as the Dark Dimension controls her."

"You deny it all," said Master.

"Of course we do," said Ewan. Will wished that he could speak; Ewan's defiance wasn't helping.

"I thought you might." Master Tom reached into the shadow pillar and withdrew a black knife. "Like it?" he asked. "Watch this – well, don't watch. Listen." He held the knife sideways to his mouth and blew like it was some kind of flute. To Will's surprise, a trumpeting blast echoed through the crater, a single note that rang in Will's ears for some time afterwards.

"The more you lie," said Master Tom, "the worse this is going to be for you. And believe me: your situation is more dire than you could possibly know."

A pair of mudmen crested the top of the crater's lip, carrying a body between them. They slid down to Master Tom's shadow pillar and slung the body at Master's feet before retreating back the way they came.

"You will tell me what you've done with Kim," said Master Tom. He grabbed the body's hair and pulled it up onto its knees.

Ewan's mom.

"Ma!" screamed Ewan. He lurched forward, but Jack and Jess held him back. "You fuckin' bastard! I'll rip your fuckin' heart out if you fuckin' touch her! Ma! Ma, can you hear me!?"

Master Tom yanked Ms. McKay to her knees. In the dim light of the distant streetlights Will could see her face contorted in pain, though her eyes remained closed like she was in a trance.

"Another word," warned Master Tom. He placed his dagger against her throat. Ewan pulled against Jack and Jess again, but he said nothing. "Now, where was I? Oh yes. My master has been slain. I watched Rita die after she gave me the coin that helped me become one of you. The Dark Dimension has shown me the truth: Zordon had to be stopped. His self-righteous sense of justice was going to turn this whole planet into a police state. He'd have seen all humans in chains if he had the chance. I destroyed him before he could have that chance. No more Zordon, no more powers for the five of you. Rita was smart, though. She learned how to channel the Black Ranger powers through the Dark Dimension."

"Hope the Dark Dimension enjoyed the little bomb we just sent," grumbled Ewan.

Master Tom pressed the knife closer against Ms. McKay's throat. "Really Ewan. Shut the fuck up. Rita was smarter than Zordon ever was. She channeled the Black Ranger powers through the Dark Dimension so that, no matter what happened to Zordon, I would still be powerful as ever. Now your precious Zordon has died, and the world is the better for it. He was holding humans back. I have freed us."

"You've fucked us," said Ewan.

Master Tom yanked his arm to the side. Ms. McKay's eyes opened and her mouth dropped in a silent scream. Dark blood gushed from beneath her chin. Ewan leapt forward, but in their simple cloth gi uniforms he was just a college kid. No special powers. No super-strength. Ms. McKay slumped into the shadow pillar, and Master Tom spun the knife in his hand and punched Ewan in the gut with its handle so hard that he sailed through the air and into the Rangers. His foot caught Will in the face and knocked all of the Rangers over.

Pain blinded Will. The sudden movement of getting kicked in the face set all his dead skin burning all over his body. He thought he might have cried out. A strong arm lifted him into the air.

"I've had to hold your hand for eight miserable years," said Master Tom. He was hardly inches from Will's face. As Will slowly tuned out the pain and focused on the now, he realized that Squatt was holding him off the ground by the front of his gi, with Master Tom standing right next to him. "You were a burden to me." Will could still hear Ewan screaming behind him. "His mother's serving a better purpose now. Haven't you wondered where all those Putties come from? We made most of them in the Dark Dimension, yes, but really it's so much better to make them here. They say God created Adam from mud and dust, well, I guess you could say we've just reversed the process…"

Master Tom forced Will's head to the side. Ms. McKay lay next to them atop the pillar. As they watched, dark mud crept up her body until it formed a cocoon. The mud dried, cracked, and broke apart. A mudman rose from the dried clay and looked to Master Tom, as if awaiting orders.

Master Tom leaned closer to Will, but when he spoke it was not with his voice. "The ones we make from humans," said a woman, "are so much stronger than the pitiful things I brought back to Earth with me. When all of this is over, and I am Queen of this pathetic planet, I will turn your lost little Master Tom into the strongest Putty of them all. Who knows? I might even find this 'Kim' of his and command him to destroy her. Wouldn't that be fun."

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER," Ewan was screaming. "YOU FUCKING FUCK! I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND SHIT IN YOUR EYE SOCKETS!"

The shadow of Rita passed from Tom's face, and he placed his dark knife against Will's cheek. Ewan stopped yelling. "It would be a mercy for me to kill you now," Master said quietly with his own voice. He began to drag the knife across Will's face. Will wanted to scream, but it just came out as strangled grunts. Master Tom took his time with the cut, letting the blade slide through Will's flesh ever so slowly. "It would be a mercy," Master Tom repeated, "but that's not my Power. I saw you five beating my Kim to a bloody pulp. I will keep you alive only long enough to find her. Then, I will make sure your deaths are as slow as Zordon's was." He nodded, and Squatt threw Will onto the chunk of untouched asphalt where the other Rangers were. "Squatt. Baboo. Take them to the palace. Human reinforcements have arrived outside the city, and I must go and greet them." He grinned widely. "Did you know that Zordon had been keeping his greatest technology from you this whole time? His last act before he died was unlocking it for your use. Unfortunately for him, it also granted _me_ full access. Time to go introduce the United States Army to my zord. Oh, and Jack, Jess… One more step out of line, and your parents will be next."

Black shadow swirled around Master Tom and carried him into the air. He was gone.


	60. Episode 12 Ch 4 Repayment

Episode 12, Chapter 4 – April

Squatt, Baboo, and the mudman who used to be Ewan's mother stepped forward, and as they did, the shadow pillar moved with them. April and the other Rangers tried to back away, but there would be no escape. The twins were mostly uninjured, but Will was hardly fit to move, and Ewan was in even worse shape. He sat on his knees, tears streaming from his face. He hadn't moved since the Black Ranger left.

"If they take us prisoner," whispered April, "we might be able to break free and destroy Rita's palace from the inside." But even as she said it she knew it was impossible. Zordon was dead. They had no more powers. They were just kids again.

Instead she studied Baboo. That monster was once the Blue Ranger; April had seen her memories. She used to love the water. She had been the glue that held the old team together, but when Rita tore it apart, the Blue Ranger couldn't handle it. Rita had turned her into a horrible blue beast just because she thought the Blue Ranger was prettier than her. Rita's insecurities must have run pretty deep to do something so childish.

And April didn't even know what to think of Squatt. He looked like a thin gray sheet stretched over too much muscle, with a lumpy, disfigured head resting on top. The head grinned at her when she looked at it.

"Heh heh heh," Squatt chuckled. "Come Rangers…"

"Fuck off, Shrek."

They heard a dry crackling, almost like lightning, and a jet of ice caught Squatt in the face while another hit Baboo in the chest. A third ice blast crashed against the mudman's head. A thin laser sliced through its side. Its arm fell away, but the monster snarled and fell behind Squatt before the laser could do any more damage. Squatt roared at the shooter and leapt away in the other direction, Baboo and the mudman clinging to his back as they disappeared.

April looked up the crater slope behind them just in time to see Alpha 5's faceless head tilt towards them. "Down here," he said. "One's hurt pretty bad."

Two humans sprinted over the crater's lip and slid down towards them with futuristic-looking guns in their hands. April recognized one: Jason Scott, the paramedic they had saved from the burning apartment earlier that night. Will had given him his spare tank of healing salve, April realized. If he had any left, Will may survive.

The other human got to them first. She was beautiful: blonde hair, blue eyes, and when she spoke it was with an Australian accent. "Hey there," she said with a quiet, reassuring tone. "I'm Kat, and this is Jason. We're here to help you."

"He's hurt pretty bad," Jack said. He and Jess had propped Will into a sitting position. Blood caked Will's face, and the black, dead parts of his skin couldn't possibly look much worse than they already did.

Kat turned. "Jason!" she called. "We need more salve!"

"I'm all out!" Jason called back. "We've used it up already."

April's heart sank. She remembered what Will had thought when he gave the salve to Jason earlier that night. _If I get hurt and we could have used that extra salve, then I'll take my scar knowing that one of these people doesn't have to live with one. This is the reality we signed up for when we became Rangers._ The looks on the twins' faces told her that they had realized the same thing.

Jason slid down next to Kat and examined Will. "We can at least stop the bleeding here," he pulled some rags from his backpack and pressed them against Will's face. Jack held the rags in place while Jason rummaged through his bag. "What happened to his skin? Those don't look like burns."

"No," said April. "They're not. There was a monster here, and it touched him."

Jason frowned. "Was it one of those three we shot?" April looked carefully at the guns. Veins of blue ice pulsed across their frames. Professor Cranston's design. These were obviously two of the twelve people Zordon had chosen. They were trustworthy.

April shook her head. "A different monster. It caused this crater."

"And you survived?"

"Oh for fuck's sake," said Jess. "Figure it out. We're the assholes who gave you that healing salve in the first place."

"Jess!" said Jack.

Jess shrugged. "What? We're powerless now; no harm in telling someone. There was a monster here, and we killed it, but it touched Will with its stupid fucking _death tentacles_ and if you don't help him then he'll die."

"You five," Jason said slowly, "are the Power Rangers?"

"_Were_," corrected Jess. "We _were_ the Power Rangers. We were the ones who busted your ass out of that burning apartment block. But apparently the alien who gave us all our fancy powers has gone and died, and now the world's fucked. You should probably leave the city, or the _fucking_ _planet_ if you can."

April shook her head, but Jess wasn't wrong. Without Zordon, what could they do? There were no more Power Rangers. Rita never had to defeat the Rangers themselves – just Zordon – and she had done exactly that by misdirecting them. If even one of the Rangers had stayed at the Command Center, they might have stopped the Black Ranger.

Alpha shoved his way between Jason and Katherine. "Move aside, meatbags. Let me look at him." Alpha knelt beside Will. "When we lost the Command Center, I knew it wouldn't be long before I ran into you five, though frankly even I didn't think I'd find you so quickly. Stealth is not one of your strong suits."

"Good to see you too, Alpha," said Jack. Alpha responded with a raised middle finger.

"The damage is extensive," Alpha said a moment later. "Kidneys are damaged. His body's filling with fluids, and he's losing circulation in his extremities. Kid's been through hell, and he looks it."

What about him?" Jason nodded to Ewan, who hadn't moved an inch since Squatt and Baboo left. "Is he okay?"

"He just lost his mom," said Jess.

"Was she that clay person?" asked Kat. "We've seen others around the city get turned into those things." April and the twins nodded. Kat's shoulders slumped. "I'm so sorry…"

No one spoke. A breeze played across the crater. Jason and Katherine were soaked through; April was glad to see that the rain had finally let up. But the sky was still dark. April didn't know what time it was, but she was pretty sure that it should be close to dawn. Yet it looked like it was still the middle of the night. Destroying the Void Weed had certainly lessened Rita's power, but she still had plenty to spare.

_The Black Ranger thinks Rita's dead_, April thought. _But we never saw her, and I don't think anyone else would have killed her. And the way he kept talking about this "Kim" person… Rita must have tricked him into thinking we're bad. It's the only explanation._ She wanted to offer this idea to the other Rangers, but they couldn't hear each other's thought anymore, and she didn't feel like speaking. The silence in her head, after a night of being telepathically connected to her new friends, was deafening.

"We can't stay here," Jason said at last. "More and more patrols are roaming the city, and without you to stop them… Well, we have to get him some place safe." He nodded at Will, who was looking worse and worse by the minute.

"You two should go on without us," said April. "There are others you can help. Alpha can keep us safe."

Alpha snorted. "Better than you ever could."

Jason and Kat stood and exchanged a look. Kat nodded. "Alright," said Jason. They turned to leave, but Jason turned back. "You know… even if you don't have your powers anymore, you five made a difference tonight. Thank you." He and Kat trudged up the crater's slope in silence.

"Come on," said Alpha with none of his usual sass, "I saw an abandoned building that should be safe enough. It's just down this way." Jack and Jess helped Will to his feet. The three of them started awkwardly up the crater wall.

"April." She turned; Ewan spoke slowly, his eyes still locked on the spot where his mother had been turned into a mudman. "Who did you fight in the Dark Dimension?"

The question caught April off-guard. "You mean when we were fighting each other?"

"Yeah. Who was I?"

"…My father."

Ewan slumped back, still resting on his knees, and put his hands on his thighs. "Guess who I thought you were." He still wouldn't look away from the spot.

April shook her head. "Ewan, why don't we talk about this somewhere safer? We have to get away from this place." April had already taken her powers for granted. She longed to be able to see and feel Ewan's emotions, but of course that was impossible now.

Ewan ignored April. He said nothing. Jess called down for them to move their asses. April called back that they would just be a minute. When she turned back to Ewan, he was on his feet. "Give up?" he asked. His affect was flat, his spirit totally gone.

"Yeah." April already knew, but Ewan had to be the one to say it.

Ewan nodded back at where the shadow pillar had been. "You were _her_." He shuffled past her and up the crater after the others.


	61. Episode 12 Ch 5 Revenge

Episode 12, Chapter 5 – Private Ryan Scott

Private Scott couldn't tell what was sweat and what was rain. His company had left their base eight hours ago. They had biked straight through the night, and for the past few hours the downpour had been nothing short of torrential. The water weighed them all down, but they were soldiers, dammit. A bit of extra weight wasn't going to stop them, not when terrorists had taken over an entire city.

They were still half an hour out when they saw the shaft of fire. No one knew what to make of it. It wasn't an explosion, but it also didn't look like a weapon. After the shaft of fire, though, the city's electricity sparked back to life, lighting up the downtown skyline like some eerie postcard or fire and death. The rain began to taper off. Private Scott wasn't a superstitious man, but he wondered if the fire, and the city lights, and the rain weren't all connected somehow.

His company gathered along the western highway that led into the city. The pileup of cars was thicker here than it had been on the way in, all on the outgoing side. These people had been trying to escape, and something – or someone – had stopped them.

Private Scott had a bad feeling about all of this. There was supposed to be another company of soldiers already here, but there were no signs of them. _Maybe we arrived before they did?_

Major Strong called everyone together and updated them on their mission. Satellite feeds were coming back up. The blackout line was receding, so they were working on 'coptering in as many armors as they could, but for now this company was on its own. Reports were sketchy, but most agreed that strange mud-caked men had taken the city. No one was sure what had become of Cedar Grove's two-million inhabitants.

"Unfortunately," said Strong, "there are no traces of our ally company anywhere. All of our intel suggests that they should have reached the city at least thirty minutes ago. We can only assume that they are KIA. I'm going to be straight with you," said Strong. For just a moment, his face softened, which simply did not happen. It was like Chuck Norris crying or something. "The higher-ups are discussing the possibility of a nuclear strike. We don't know what these terrorists want or where they came from, but we do know that there are thousands of them. Now—"

A high screech cut him off. Everyone turned towards the city just as a shadow passed in front of one of the skyscrapers. Someone swore; the shadow was _huge_. No one spoke; hardly anyone breathed. As they listened, Private Scott soon noticed a slow, rhythmic beating sound. The thing screeched again, and under it Private Scott swore he heard laughter.

Then the beating sound stopped. All was silence but for the light rain that continued to fall.

The company was still fixated on the city when the rain stopped, then started back up again, as if they had driven through a tunnel. Private Ryan looked up; though the sky was dark, something even darker glided straight over them. "Sir!" he shouted, pointing. The black spot changed course, growing larger and larger until, at last, the beast slammed down between their company and Cedar Grove.

The highway streetlights barely even began to shine light on the monster. It stood at least eight stories tall, with a wingspan wider than a football field. Twin eyes, each like spiral galaxies resting in a perfect sea of black, stared down at them. The creature stood on four stout legs. Its body was covered in black scales that seemed to absorb whatever light touched them. It stood silent and unmoving, its black presence pulling the entire company towards it. _The damned thing looks like a fucking dragon, _thought Private Scott. _But it feels like a black hole..._

A shaft of pale starlight emanated from the top of the creature's head, and a human stepped out. _It's a machine_, Private Scott realized. _Who has the technology to build something like this!?_

"Hello!" the man said, his voice amplified by unseen speakers. "I am the new owner of this city, and you are trespassing."

"We are the United States Army!" Major Strong shouted back. Even with his booming voice, he sounded weak and insignificant next to this strange terrorist. "Who are you, and what are your demands?"

"I have already told you who I am," the man said. "I am the master of this city. My forces have defeated yours. Cedar Grove is mine, and soon my army will sweep across this planet and rid it of you worthless humans. There is no force in this galaxy that can stop me."

"Right." Major Strong turned back to his company. "Soldiers, we have our orders. We start with that machine! ATs, to the front!" The soldiers with anti-tank armaments sprinted to Strong's side and prepared to fire. The man atop the machine dropped through the hatch, which closed after him. "Aim for the eyes!" shouted Strong. "Aaaaaaand…"

Just before he gave the word to fire, the machine leapt to life. Light burned within its eyes as they locked on the company of two hundred men and women. Strong gave the command, and half a dozen rockets lit up the night sky with mighty explosions. But even through the resulting smoke, Private Scott could see those eyes, like some cosmic jack-o-lantern. The machine opened its mouth, and a great wall of black fire filled Private Scott's vision.


	62. Episode 13 Ch 1 Aurora Australis

Episode 13, Chapter 1 – Bill

He felt like his body was on fire. _No_, Bill realized, _not fire. Ice. My nerves are reacting to an extreme temperature and cannot differentiate between the two._ He opened his eyes. It was dark, and his eyes immediately stung from the cold. _My eyes won't freeze because of the salt in my tears. _He lay under a pile of debris and ice. His limbs felt heavy and slow, and his mind lagged in a dull haze. He pushed up against the debris, exposing himself to new freezing winds. He wanted to just curl up under the pile and try to stay warm, but that would accomplish nothing, and he would soon die of hypothermia. Even his dulled brain knew that it had to move soon.

With the sound of shifting junk came another: a sort of quacking. Bill shoved the last chunk of rock off and found the source immediately: a pair of emperor penguins standing at the base of the debris pile, looking up at him curiously. _I'm in the Antarctic_, he realized. Upon eye contact, the two turned and waddled off, apparently bored with the whole affair. Bill must not have made a good impression. It was like high school all over again.

The wind blew a burst of snow over him, and he dropped back down among the debris, holding his bare arms against his chest. He was still dressed for an American July; he wouldn't last an hour exposed to these elements. He dared a glance around, though it was difficult in the twilight. The Earth's rotation ensured that this part of the globe received virtually no sunlight during its winter, which was now. Bill almost felt like he was back in Cedar Grove, with the darkness and fire all around him.

_Fire?_

Bill turned and looked behind him. Yes, there was fire! He hauled himself out of the pile and shivered his way towards it, slipping and sliding and nearly falling over the entire time. He stood in the shadow of some ruins, and unfortunately he knew exactly what they were. _Zordon's Command Center, _Bill thought._ He teleported me here right when it exploded. Why would he do that? And what happened?_

Bill crouched near the fire and tried to warm his hands. They were numb from touching the debris, and though a frozen wind still kicked at Bill's back, the fire was more than worth it. He tried not to think about Cedar Grove, if the Command Center really was destroyed. Had Zordon survived somehow? Bill had assumed he was stuck in that strange tank of his, but Zordon was a mystery. Was his body elsewhere?

Bill's hands thawed at the expense of his back, and he knew that he had to find proper shelter before his core temperature dropped any more. There was only one choice: find a way inside the ruins. Bill looked for an access point – a door, a window, _something_ – but there didn't seem to be any. The outer walls were too smooth to climb, and there were no corners, as if the whole building had been a complex of cylinders to match Zordon's strange tank. Bill's only choice was to go around the whole building, but that meant leaving his beloved fire.

He took several pieces of debris – a steel rod, some cables, a bit of strange cloth – and tied them together as a sort of makeshift torch, then he set off.

The building wasn't large, but this was the coldest place on the planet, and Bill didn't even have a jacket. The wind was searingly cold. His teeth clattered and his torch bounced uncontrollably in his hands, but he placed one foot in front of the other. _My friends wouldn't give up. Tommy wouldn't. Jason wouldn't. They'd keep going, so I have to, too._

He walked for what felt like hours of pure frozen agony, though in reality it couldn't have been more than a minute or two. He eventually found a pile of fiery debris and realized that this was where he had started. There were no entrances. He would die out here.

The torch slipped out of his frozen hands. He crouched over it and began to consider the possibility of setting his shirt on fire. He could feel his whole body going numb, and his mind along with it. Darkness crept around the edges of his vision. _No, have to…_

Bill slumped into the snow, his eyes facing back in the direction he had come.

There was a man standing beside the ruins.

Bill's torch blew out, and with it went his vision of the man. In the distance he felt his own thought from earlier: _Tommy would never give up_. A weightlessness came over him, and, finding strength he never knew he had, Bill rose and stumbled towards where the man had stood. _Jason would never give up. _Bill was too frozen to feel pain. _Kimberly would never give up. _He pushed forward, falling over his own numb feet with every step. _Zack would never give up. _The frozen winds all but blinded him as he stumbled along. _ Trini would never give up._

As he approached where the man had stood, Bill's foot found a hidden patch of ice. His body went out from under him, and he tumbled straight into the wall. He braced himself for impact, but he fell straight through solid material and into a black room.

Warmth, or at the very least a lack of cold, washed over Bill, and he began to feel again. His nerves lit up with fresh pain, and he rubbed his arms, his legs, and his chest violently to heat them up and stop the agony. Feeling returned to him in the form of a thousand knives, his body still convulsing in a vain attempt to warm itself. But slowly the pins and needles left his body, and, as his shivering slowed, he allowed himself a look around.

Without a torch, Bill expected total darkness, but a soft luminescence filled the chamber. He looked up; running along the ceiling was the Aurora Australis, a beautiful dance of light waves shifting through the magnetic field of the Earth's southern pole. For a moment he stood lost in its wonder; a life's goal had been to see the Aurora Borealis up north, but this was every bit as stunning, and it was just for him.

Then the aurora shifted along the ceiling, and a wave of its light quietly descended through the room to rest on a central panel. In the soft light Bill recognized this place as the Command Center's main room. Computer panels lay in ruins everywhere, and on the other side he could just barely make out the shell of Zordon's tank. It was empty, and it now sported a sizable hole in its front. Bill waded through the destruction, carefully side-stepping as much of the junk as he could, until he came upon the panel lit by the aurora. It was not a panel, he realized, but a raised pillar, its top meeting him at chest-level. Compared to the rest of the room, it looked almost completely untouched.

Resting atop the pillar was something wholly unexpected: a silver coin. It whispered to him as he examined it, but he couldn't hear the words. He bent closer to the coin and tried to make out its face under the aurora's dancing light. It was definitely silver, though its color shifted as the aurora's did, and it was about the size of a United States half-dollar. It looked thick and heavy, and on its face was stamped an image of some kind of humanoid form.

"Zordon," Bill said out loud. Was it meant for him? The Power Rangers transformed through their coins' connections to Zordon. Surely Zordon hadn't meant for him to be a Power Ranger. There were so many who were more worthy than he was; twelve of them raced through Cedar Grove with cryogenic particle decelerators… assuming that there was still anything left of Cedar Grove. Bill wasn't worth the trouble. _Maybe I could take it and give it to someone else_, he thought. _That must be what Zordon intended. I can take this coin, repair some of these machines, and return to Cedar Grove to find someone worthy._

Tentatively, he reached for the coin and touched it. It split down the middle with a _crack!_ The Aurora Australis above him faded, leaving Bill in total darkness.


	63. Episode 13 Ch 2 Hiding

Episode 13, Chapter 2 – Jess

Jess slumped against an exposed beam. Her arm and shoulders ached; she and Jack had hauled Will halfway across town, all so Alpha could drop them into a demolished apartment block before wandering off again. Jack had laughed when he saw some ruins across the street from them. "That's where we got those people out of the fire," he said. Jess recalled the demon dog thing she had fought and shuddered. _If one of those shows up now, we're finished._

The building in which they now took refuge was in only marginally better shape than the pile of smoking rubble across the street. The front door had shattered, the doorway itself crumbled beneath the destruction around it. The Rangers had to crawl over debris just to get inside the main hallway. Alpha led them through the dark into a back corner dimly lit by something on fire in the next room. Dull fire light danced from the obscured doorway, playing dark shadows all around them. One by one the former Power Rangers plopped into the dust, exhausted from the most hellish night anyone could have dreamed of. Jack lowered Will carefully down into April's arms before sitting down between her and Jess. Ewan crumpled into the dust a moment later, the five of them praying that no mudmen would patrol through here before Alpha came back from "securing the area."

"How is he?" Jess asked.

April shook her head. Will's eyes were half-open, but he was still losing color. His breathing was quick and shallow. His eyes were sunken in. Now he didn't even respond when they talked to him. He would die soon, all because he was stupid enough to use himself to anchor the Void Weed in this world.

"Alpha said the Void Weed's pure dark matter is changing him," said April.

"While we're on the subject," Jack said quietly, "I've been meaning to ask: how did he protect you from the explosion?"

"You didn't see it?" asked Jess. Jack and April shook their heads. "The bastard finally figured out what his Ranger weapon was: a shield. A big round shield like he was fucking Captain America."

"Good timing," said Jack.

"No shit."

"How bout we talk about something other than Will," said Ewan.

No one knew what to say to that.

"It's too quiet, without you all in my head," muttered April.

No one knew what to say to that, either. They sat in silence for some time, which Jess spent imagining her parents suffering the same fate as Ewan's mom. They had hardly seen another soul on their trek across town; by this point, everyone in Cedar Grove was either dead or captured. Jess' parents were stubborn and stupid enough to try to fight back; they were probably dead. But if they had been turned into mudmen like Ewan's mom, Jess wasn't so sure she would be able to fight them.

_Fuck_, she thought, _I've changed._

"Anyone believe the Black Ranger's bullshit about Rita being dead?" asked Ewan.

"We haven't seen her yet," said Jack. "It is possible that Goldar is the true threat here. Rita might be dead, and he is just acting on her behalf. It would explain how Master Tom could be the Black Ranger."

"But he thinks we're holding some lady hostage," Jess pointed out. "Someone's lying to him."

"I wouldn't put it past Goldar to lie like that," said Jack.

"No," said April. "Rita is out there. She's the one pulling everyone's strings. It's hard to explain, but I could feel her on the Black Ranger."

"Strings or no," said Ewan, "Master Tom killed my mom and turned her into one of those mud-fuckers, and then he set his little attack dogs on us before turning tail to go who knows where. If Rita's out there, then I haven't seen her, but Master Tom is as real as anything, and he wants us dead."

"He's just being used," April shook her head. "Like you and I were in the Dark Dimension. It's no different. Even Scorpina was being used by Rita; you saw her face when we freed her from Rita's influence. She was finally at peace. We can't forget who the real enemy is out there, Ewan."

"Can't fight someone you can't fight, April."

"Well-said," grumbled Jess.

"Sis," said Jack. "I've been thinking."

"When do you not?" she asked.

Jack ignored her, as usual. "We know the fates of all the old Rangers but one. There's Rita, of course, and Yellow became Scorpina. White died, and Green and Blue became Squatt and Baboo. What happened to the old Red Ranger?"

"The fuck are you talking about?" asked Jess. "He took on Goldar alone and…" she thought back through her memories of the old Ranger and realized that she had seen nothing of him after Goldar had attacked him in a burning forest. "Shit. I don't know." She saw a flash of a charred, skeletal face. "Died, I think."

Jack frowned. "Based on the others, I wouldn't count on it. He could be out in the city somewhere."

"The fuck does that matter, Jack?" asked Ewan. "We've already lost. Rita could have a thousand other dead Rangers out there for all it matters."

"I just like to know the statistics."

"Well good! I have some new ones for you: one of our parents is now officially a monster," he glanced at Will, "_another_ got turned into a fucking mudman, and who the fuck knows where the rest are? So what is that, Jack? Two out of…"

"I'm not playing this game, Ewan."

Ewan ignored him, as usual. "We'll say two out of seven then – my parents, your parents, April's parents, and Master Tom. But since there's no chance in fuck that my dad is anywhere near Cedar Grove we'll say two out of six of our parents are now part of Rita's army. There's your statistics for the morning."

"Ewan…" said April. "We might still be able to save Will's dad and your mom. I know Alpha wouldn't tell us much on the way here, but once he comes back we'll have some answers. There has to be something we can do."

"Will's dad slit my mom's throat, April. And you think we can still save them – or _anyone else_, for that matter? We can't even save ourselves!"

"Not with that attitude we can't," said Jack.

"Fuck off, Jack," said Ewan.

Jack remained calm, like always. Jess usually found it annoying, but right now she was just too tired. "No," Jack said, "you listen: the past twelve hours have been some of the most dangerous that this planet – not city, _planet_ – has ever faced, and we fought back. We did the best that we knew how, and so did Zordon, and Master Tom, and your mother, and everyone else. Will is dying because he sacrificed himself for everyone in this city. You saying that we 'can't save ourselves' undermines everything we've fought for tonight. Will is better than that, and so are you. Saving ourselves was never the point. We may not have our powers anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't fight back and possibly even still take Rita down. It may be that defeating her will reverse her spell and turn your mom back into a human. Or it may not be; we don't know until we try. I can't pretend to understand what you're going through right now, seeing your mom like that, and I can't say that I would be acting any differently if I were you, but that's our reality right now, and if there is anything – _anything_ – we can do besides wallow in our own sorrow, then we have to do it."

"There's not." Everyone – except Will – jumped in surprise. Alpha 5 emerged from the dark of the hallway, two lights flashing dimly on his head and the firelight from the nearby door casting his body in a soft orange glow. "Nice speech, Four-eyes, but we're basically fucked. Rita's army isn't far off, and it has new recruits. Without your powers to keep her in check, Rita has upgraded her forces. _All of them_. They're rounding up the last few stragglers in the city and gathering them in Central Square."

Jack slowly slumped forward. Suddenly he looked twenty years older, and very tired. Jess could see his whole countenance begin to crack, and that shook her more than she could say.

"Fuck," Jack whispered.


	64. Episode 13 Ch 3 Seven

Episode 13, Chapter 3 – Bill

Bill still held the two halves of the broken coin in his palm, but the room was so dark now that he couldn't see his hand when he held it inches from his face. _I was never meant to be a Ranger_, he thought. _The coin cracked because I was the wrong person. I should have left it where it was while I repaired the Command Center, then perhaps I could have learned who Zordon meant to have this coin._

He stood in the black, unsure of what to do next. He knew the layout of the Command Center as it had been before its destruction, but he dared not move for fear of tripping on unseen debris. Breaking an arm would hardly help matters. Now he had a choice: suffer a long, sightless death inside, or a brief, frozen one outside?

He felt the coin in his hand, pressing the two halves together and using his fingers to feel what the pictures on each side must have been. He had seen the face side, and now he could feel it again – humanoid form in portrait, bald, stately with its severe nose and scowling expression. But as he felt the back he realized that it was covered not with a picture but with words. At first he felt the word "septem," which was Latin for "seven." _Latin_, he reflected, _the root language of so many Western cultures… _But even as his fingers slid over the word a second time, the metal under his finger shifted and became "seven." Then a new word appeared, again in Latin, and Bill silently translated it. Each word shifted into English as he deciphered them, until at last he had translated the message in full.

"_Seven from one, and one from seven_," he recited aloud. "_Honor, Ambition, Strength, Courage, Spirit, Harmony, united in Wisdom, broken by necessity. Such is Zordon the Desperate, last Defender of Earth. His folly may only be redeemed in knowledge and sacrifice_."

At the last word, the coin's two halves rejoined, then split again into seven equal pieces which lit the room with gems the colors of the Rangers – shining diamond, lustrous topaz, deep emerald, clear sapphire, dazzling ruby – as well as a dark amethyst for the Black Ranger and a seventh piece that rippled with all of the colors of the rainbow. Bill stood, transfixed by the rainbow piece as it and the other six rose into the air and danced about the room, their colors reflecting off the broken machinery and highlighting the great destruction that surrounded Bill. The spectacle was breathtaking, even more beautiful than the Aurora that had lit the room just moments before. The gems gained speed. Bill could only stare as they circled the room faster and faster until their colors all blended into one, their refracted light becoming more and more blinding as they accelerated.

Soon Bill could no longer watch the pieces themselves – they were too fast and too luminescent – but as they spun he noticed that the different colors of lights slowly melted together to bathe the Command Center in a white light so pure and bright that he wanted to shield his eyes, but he found that he could no longer lift his arms. Wind from the swirling gems blew about his face, playing with his hair and clothes. Bill's feet shifted – _did I move, or did something move me?_ – and soon he found himself facing Zordon's broken tank.

The light of the coin shards began playing tricks on his vision. He saw flashes of the Command Center as it had been: shadows of a Ranger in black, of the old Bill Cranston and Alpha 5 working on the cryogenic particle decelerators, of the Five Rangers in their karate gis – _damn, they really are just kids_ – of alarms, of Alpha monitoring a red planet just as something exploded from deep within its surface. Bill saw the monitors around him showing scenes from Earth's past, famous events reaching further and further back in time. He witnessed the rapid de-evolution of human technology in the blink of an eye until, suddenly, a fresh new wave of visions rippled by him in the form of old Power Rangers. He saw a large black man in white, with a lion's mane of dreadlocks, a dark, angry man in red, a beautiful woman in blue, a massive hulk of a man in green, a wiry woman in yellow, and…

The visions of Rita Repulsa were particularly hard to follow. The air around her shimmered and rippled when she moved, as though he were viewing her underwater. She was exquisitely beautiful, the kind of beauty that could doom civilizations to war and end the lives of countless men. Perhaps it had. She moved with the grace and confidence of a queen, yet in her eyes there was a primal craving befitting her _Ambition_. Bill Cranston witnessed countless silent scenes play out before him as the old Rangers rewound through their unusually long lives until one by one the six Rangers handed Alpha 5 their power coins.

_No_, thought Bill. _The scenes are playing backwards. This is when Alpha gave them their coins. This is when they became Rangers_. Red, yellow, green, blue, white, and finally (or firstly?) black. As each Ranger, played backwards, placed their coin in Alpha's open palm, the corresponding shard of broken coin shot down from high above the room and disappeared into Alpha's hand as well. One by one the lights went out, shifting the colors in the Command Center and weakening the visions before him until none remained but the rainbow shard. When the vision of Rita Repulsa placed her coin in Alpha's hand, her yellow eyes shining even in the dim light, the vision disappeared altogether, and the rainbow shard stopped spinning.

Bill's mind buzzed with information as the rainbow shard floated down and stopped three feet from his face. He stared at it, knowing what this shard must represent if the other six were the Rangers. "Zordon," he said aloud. No, that wasn't quite right. They were all Zordon. _Seven from one, one from seven_. "_Wisdom_," he whispered.

Then the shard exploded in a galaxy of light, blinding Bill and knocking him to the floor.

When he finally came to again, Zordon himself stood before him.


	65. Episode 13 Ch 4 Five

Episode 13, Chapter 4 – Jack

He had tried his best to stay positive for the group, or at least to be realistic, but Alpha's report had cracked Jack's foundation. He slumped beside Will's broken body feeling utterly defeated.

"Without you to distract her," continued Alpha, "Rita is using the Dark Dimension to upgrade her mudmen. They're faster, stronger, _creepier_, and they're coming. There's nowhere to run – yeah, I know, I'm really fun at parties – and it looks like little Willy won't be moving much anytime soon. Best we leave him here and go somewhere else. At least it might delay the inevitable for the rest of you."

"Like hell," said Jess. "We're not leaving him behind. He'll die."

"He's going to die whether we leave him here or take him to the best hospital in the world," said Alpha. "He's already dead. He touched the Void Weed. Direct bodily contact with that thing only has one conclusion. We need to go somewhere else. Now."

"Why!?" shouted Jess. Alpha shushed her, but that only pissed her off more (as usual). "Why the fuck should we listen to anything you say? You've been no fucking help all night you little piece of shit! We've been out here risking our lives for this city while you and Zordon sat down in the Arctic twiddling your thumbs. And then, the moment you find yourself in real danger, you tell us to leave someone behind. Let me guess: we leave Will so that he can distract the mudmen long enough for you to make an escape? Fuck you, Alpha!"

_She's scared_, thought Jack. _She always gets like this when she's scared. But is she scared for Will… or herself?_

The robot tilted its head. Sometimes Jack wished it had a face. Other times he was glad the sassy machine couldn't emote. Its language was colorful enough.

"Have you ever wondered why I'm called Alpha 5?" the robot asked, emphasizing the word _five_. The question caught the group off-balance. No one answered. Alpha bent down and gently set his freeze gun on the floor before standing and crossing his arms. "No? Didn't think so. You humans don't think about anything but yourselves. Well then settle down, Firecrotch, it's story time." Jess made to object, but Alpha just talked over her. "After the last of Zordon's friends died defending this planet, he created Alpha. Just Alpha, the first in what Zordon had thought would be a whole line of automated sentinels. But Zordon's design was so perfect that he knew he only had to make one. That's all it took to defend and maintain the Command Center. Well, over the years – that was back during the last mass extinction, you understand – Alpha started working on himself. He had a way of objectively analyzing the situation that ole' Zed-head never could. Eventually, Alpha designed a new version of himself, even though Zordon's original design had been perfect. Alpha's was _better_ than perfect. But Alpha had to sacrifice his own parts in order to create Alpha 2 – why he didn't name himself _Beta_ is beyond me, but at this point it doesn't bear dwelling on. Whatever he chose to name himself, this sacrifice he did willingly for the sake of Zordon and the planet. Our line has continued this time-honored tradition until me.

"I have seen more than you could possibly comprehend, humans. Your hundred years of life are nothing to me. I have lived more centuries than you have days. Just try to let that sink in, if you can. In that time I have devoted myself to the improvement of both my own form and Zordon's Command Center. He always valued my counsel, but one key thing separated the two of us: as you may have noticed, I lack emotions. Now while I consider this a benefit, Zordon does not. He thinks that I am heartless, figuratively-speaking, just as I think his emotions are what caused all of this trouble to begin with. He valued Rita more than he should have, and it cost him more than you could ever know. You may not believe me, but he ordered me away when the Black Ranger came to destroy the Command Center. It was part of his plan, you assholes. He may have suffered from a terminal case of emotions, but Zordon was the wisest creature in this galaxy. So how about you stop whining about your pitifully short lives and trust that the old bastard knew what he was—" A small light beeped to life on Alpha's face. He held a hand up to shush the Rangers. Alpha's head tilted towards the door.

Something was outside.

Jack knew the slurpy, wet language of the mudmen by now, but this was not it. If anything, this sounded like some massive cricket was chirping just outside. _Upgraded mudmen_, Alpha had said. But part of Jack's mind was still trying to process what the robot had said about his own existence. The last major mass extinction was the Cretaceous-Paleogene some 66 million years ago. The Alphas had lived on a geologic scale, and in all that time they and Zordon hadn't been able to make an Alpha 6. _Zordon had a plan_, Jack thought. _Alpha said so_. _He knew the Black Ranger was coming for him. But could his plan have been to just give up? No one can live for so long and not consider death. Maybe he just wanted to die. Maybe his plan was just to end everything._

Alpha turned his whole body to the door. Firelight from the hallway to Alpha's right caught him in an orange glow, almost as though he stood before them as some new Orange Ranger. Small compartments along his arms and legs opened up to reveal various gun barrels and miniature missile launchers. All remained fixed on the door as he stood utterly motionless.

The light coming through the cracks of the broken door suddenly blacked out. The monsters outside stopped chirping. Jack felt himself reaching for his hip before he remembered that he wasn't a Ranger anymore; his pistol wasn't there. Before, he might have been able to feel the mudmen on the other side of the door simply by extending his mind into the earth around them, but he was just a normal kid again. No special powers except the might and glory of asthma.

Alpha stood as a statue between the powerless kids and the blocked door. None of the humans dared to breathe for fear of being heard. No light came through the doorway now. It was impossible to tell if there were two mudmen outside or two-hundred. _If need be, perhaps we can escape through one of the side rooms._ But Jack knew their odds were slim to nil: the old mudmen were already faster than most humans, and with Will in his current state… _Why was Alpha so insistent that we leave him behind?_

The mudmen outside the door made soft clicking noises. Something sharp scratched against the doorway. Alpha raised an arm to aim a dozen small mounted guns directly at the door._ Maybe they'll leave. Maybe they'll leave. Maybe they'll…_

The door jumped aside, revealing a long, thin shadow with a face lit from within. Four arms shone as something like an insect carapace caught the firelight and reflected it back, illuminating the hallway. The carapace lined a thin body with countless black ridges that only deepened in the dim firelight. Dozens of tiny eyes burned across the mudman's face like so many pinholes. Each of the four arms, Jack realized, ended in hard, pointed pinchers. A pair of thin wings glittered behind the beast.

The mudman's fiery eyes had just enough time to focus on the killer robot, its mouth opening wide in muted surprise and a pair of mandibles doing a frantic little dance before a hundred bullets ripped through its shell and tore it to pieces. A second mudman leapt high through the doorway to dodge Alpha's volley, its wings scraping along the ceiling before it fell upon Alpha. The two tumbled to the floor in a mass of orange and black. The mudman sat on Alpha's chest, digging at his armor with its sharp pinchers and denting the robot's head with jabs that clanged so loud that it hurt Jack's ears. Guns along Alpha's left arm wheeled round and prepared to fire, but the mudman made a sound like it was hacking up phlegm, and it spit several nasty black globs at Alpha's outstretched arm. The goo covered all the gun barrels in Alpha's arm, rendering them useless. The mudman clicked a strange laugh and punched Alpha's head again with its four arms.

"Run!" shouted the robot. "Run, you assholes!" A small opening appeared in Alpha's elbow. He tried to aim a rocket-powered punch at the mudman's head, but the mudman caught his arm between two of his pinchers and laughed again. It squeezed. Jack could hear Alpha's metal groaning.

Ewan was the first to his feet, then Jess. Jack froze, unable to stop watching the fight. More mudmen appeared in the doorway at the other end of the hall, all of them huge and many-armed and terrifyingly insect-like with their thin armored arms and their dozens of eyes. The mudman atop Alpha squeezed Alpha's arms until smoke billowed from his joints, then it pinned both of the robot's arms to the floor and used its other two arms to pound the robot's head into the floor.

"We've lost enough today," growled Ewan. He sprinted down the hall, Jess hot on his heels.

"Guys!" shouted Jack. There was no way they stood a chance against the new mudmen, and Alpha was trying to buy them time. "We have to go!"

"Get Will out of here!" Jess yelled over her shoulder.

A small opening appeared in Alpha's chest and sent a jet of flame straight through the chest of the mudman sitting on top of him. It crumbled to dust. Alpha leapt to his feet just in time to take on a fresh pair of monsters. Blades wheeled from Alpha's wrists, which he used to slice an arm clean off the nearest mudman. Three quick movements, and the monster lost its leg, a second arm, and then its head. The remaining mudman swiped with two right arms and blasted Alpha through the wall. In a second the robot flung himself back into the hallway, driving both wrist blades into the mudman's chest. It vanished into dust, but more mudmen were crowding through the door.

Alpha turned his dented head back towards the humans. "No god dammit, I meant run the _other_ fucking way!" he shouted. "_Away_ from death!" He turned and tried to fire a volley, but the only things to shoot from his arm were sparks. "Am I still speaking English? Away, you fuckers!"

"Jack!" called April. "I can't move Will," she said. "I'm… ugh… just not strong enough."

Jack crouched beside his two friends. "I think I am," he said. "You go and help _them_." Jack nodded down the hall. April looked as though she had expected him to say that. She nodded, stood, and bounded down the hall with all the grace of a practiced gymnast, leaving Jack alone with his dying friend.

_It's up to me to get Will out of here_, he knew.

Jack threaded his arms under Will and tried to move him, but his old friend only screamed in pain and began to cough up blood. Jack hesitated. He didn't know anatomy like Will did, but he was pretty sure that coughing up blood was a bad thing. "Sorry buddy," he whispered to Will, "but we have to go."

Jack turned back to Alpha to see if maybe the robot could fight their way out. Several more mudmen had fallen to Alpha's assault, but so many more had appeared outside that Jack wondered if the entire building was surrounded.

Ewan and Jess reached the end of the hall. Ewan grabbed Alpha's freeze gun and began shooting indiscriminately, forcing Jess to hold back for fear of being hit herself.

Just as April joined them, Alpha 5 sent a fresh jet of flame from his chest that roared down the hall and cooked three mudmen to ash. Five more bounded through the dust, twenty pinchers ready to rip the robot open and possibly the humans as well. Ewan's blasts knocked the wings and two arms off of one. Alpha dodged below a right hook and dodged even lower under the mudman's _other_ right hook, stabbed its kneecap, hooked his arm upward and fired a jet of flame up the mudman's crotch. A thick leg smashed against Alpha's chest and knocked him into the wall with a loud _clang!_ Alpha grabbed at his own hips and flung a volley of ninja stars from a secret compartment, catching one mudman in the face and the other two in the chest. All three continued their advance until the stars exploded, ripping each of them into a thousand pieces.

"Here," Alpha turned and threw something to Jess and April, though Jack couldn't tell what it was through the darkness. "If you're going to be stupid, then at least try to be usefully stupid."

"I'm calling you on your bullshit," said Jess. "I think you have emotions. I think you _care_ about us." Jack could hear the grin in her voice, even if he couldn't see it.

Alpha groaned.

More mudmen poured into the hall. Jack grabbed Will's arm and hoisted him over his shoulder, ignoring his friend's cries of pain and the blood that now clung to Jack's face, neck, and shoulders. He turned to an open door that led into the next room and began walking. The room was near pitch-black, though, and soon his foot rolled on a piece of rubble that he hadn't seen. He and Will tumbled together into the room in a cloud of dust. Jack felt pain shoot through his leg, and he knew that his ankle was in bad shape.

_Doesn't matter_, he thought as he lay in the dust trying not to scream. _Will is in worse pain._ He pulled himself up on his good foot and put pressure on his bad. Fresh pain jolted up his leg and almost made him cry out again. In the darkness he could barely see Will, but soon he hobbled to a dark lump just ahead of him and felt flesh. Will groaned at Jack's touch, but at least Jack had found him. Balancing himself on his good leg, he dragged Will up and over his shoulder, his thigh already burning at the extra weight. Will's cries of pain were mere whimpers now.

An explosion of light made Jack turn and almost drop Will again. The battle in the hall had blown away the wall of the room that Jack was in. Despite himself, he stood for another moment, transfixed on the fight still raging. The explosion, it seemed, had been from the small things Alpha had given to Jess and April. Even as Jack watched, Jess slung another small object straight at the face of a screaming mudman. The object lodged in the creature's throat, and a second later its head and chest exploded. Ice beams ripped from Ewan's gun in all directions, nearly catching Alpha in the back more than once.

But they were losing ground. There were simply too many mudmen. Six piled onto Alpha, and another slipped past Ewan's freeze blasts and shoulder-tackled him to the ground. At that close range, the girls couldn't use their explosives. They leapt onto the back of the mudman and kicked and punched at its head, but it reached back with its four arms, grabbed Jess by her clothes and April by her hair, and flung both against the wall so hard that they slumped to the floor and didn't move. Ewan, with the mudman distracted, leapt to his feet, his face bloody from the attack. With a scream he charged the mudman and landed a flying kick against the monster's face. The mudman turned, hardly phased by the attack, and lifted Ewan off his feet.

Jack's mind raced. _Hopeless_, he thought. Will coughed up fresh blood on Jack's shoulder while the mudman began to choke Ewan. _The odds are hopeless. But we have to do something. Do I save Ewan… or Will?_ The three of them had been best friends since the first grade. Ewan had been the school bully, and Jack had been his favorite target. But when Will joined their school, he had stood up to Ewan and positively thrashed him on the playground. Inexplicably, Ewan had welcomed the change (after visiting the school nurse, anyway), and he had begged Will to teach him to fight like that, as had Jack. The three had been inseparable ever since.

Childhood friendships rarely made sense, but Jack had often thought theirs had taken the cake. Will had taught them all to fight, to protect themselves and others. And now Jack had to protect him. Ewan had made his choice, and Will was helpless. Jack knew what he had to do. _I'm so sorry, Ewan._

But for a moment – just when he was turning his back to the fight to try to haul Will to safety, Alpha rocketed from the pile of mudmen – literally – with jets of flame blasting from the bottoms of his feet. He flipped in the air and sent a rocket kick into the face of the first mudman to try to pull him from the air. A second mudman caught his leg; in response, Alpha's heel-rocket unleashed its full fiery fury into the mudman's face. The mudman holding Ewan turned at the sound. It looked as though it was trying to decide whether to kill the puny thing in its hands or turn to help its fellow mudmen battle the real threat.

Alpha landed a foot on the heads of two of the mudmen who had piled on top of him and sent white jets through their carapaces and down into their disintegrating torsos. Alpha landed in the dust where they had stood a moment later, his metal head aimed squarely at the mudman holding Ewan.

"Alright fucker," said Alpha. "Time to—"

A thin jet of dark red flame exploded from the wall on the left and caught Alpha hard in the back. The robot froze in place, and Jack realized that within the red fire was a sword. A large creature barreled through the wall, clutching the other end of the fire sword that now impaled Alpha's torso.

The creature ripped the sword up through Alpha's body and head, cleaving him in half.

"NO!" Jack screamed. The robot's body crumpled to the floor.

The creature laughed and threw its sword straight down so that it stuck into the floor. The monster was large and hulking, unlike the mantis-like mudmen gathering in the hall. Where they were dark and angular, this thing was pale and thick. Its whole skeleton stood on the outside of a large, blackened body. Its ribs were twisted into the image of a grotesque face with flaming eyes, its scapulae pulled up and over its shoulders like protective pads. And its face… That skeletal grin never left its face, and its eyes were deep pits of ash under a charred helmet from some ancient army.

"Did you see that?" the creature laughed. Its voice was like Goldar's – gravelly, like it had smoked three packs a day for the past several centuries – but higher, with a maniacal edge that gave Jack chills. The creature turned and pointed back to the hole he had made in the wall. "I was all like 'heeeeeere's Rito!' And BOOM! Shishkabot! Heh heh!" He turned and looked at Jess, April, and Ewan. "Woah ho ho! I know those get-ups anywhere! Rangers! Oh boy oh boy, sis is gonna LOVE this! Putties, grab the two on the floor. They're girls though, so watch where you grab – I'll have no pervs serving under my watch, you know! And you there! You stick a claw through his face, and I'll stick mine through yours. Sis wants all the Rangers alive." Mudmen surged forward and scooped up the girls. The mudman holding Ewan hit him upside the head, knocking him out, and flung him harshly over its shoulder. "Hmm," said Rito. He pointed at each Ranger like he was counting them. "My memory's not so good, but I thought there were more than three. And was it just me, or did I hear someone yell "NO!" like I'd just killed their favorite puppy?" He stomped down the hall. Jack dared not move for fear of tripping again. He stood still as he could, praying that Rito wouldn't look through the broken wall and into the room where Jack was.

Rito looked carefully at each unconscious Ranger in turn, then down at the ground where Will's blood sat in a pool in the hallway. "That yours?" Rito asked Ewan, pointing at the blood. But Ewan, still unconscious, failed to respond. "Hey! Hey ugly, wake up! Eh, forget it." He turned to the mudmen. "Come on! Chop chop! Sis is about to address her loving subjects, and we don't want to keep her waiting!"

The mudmen marched past Rito and out of the building until he alone stood at the end of the hall. "Everyone out?" Rito called. Something clicked a response from outside. "Great! And since we don't want Zordon's little robot to come back all zombie-like and kill us all…" Rito cleared his throat and yelled in a surprisingly good Ronald Reagan impression: "Putties… tear down these walls!"

Jack's stomach dropped.

Rito laughed to himself and stomped out of the hall. Outside, Jack felt and heard rumbles all around him. The mudmen were bringing the building down around them. _They really had surrounded the whole building. My only choice is to get out and be captured, but I'm still not leaving Will._ He took a step, ignoring the searing pain from his swollen ankle. Will no longer made a sound. Jack wasn't sure if he was even still alive. Something fell from the ceiling in front of him. He turned back to the hallway to follow Rito… just as the ceiling caved in and buried the door.

"Has to… be a way…" Jack said. "Has to… AHH!"

The entire room fell around him in a deafening roar. He threw his arms up just as debris blocked out the last remaining fire light. The full building, ten stories at least, crumbled on top of the two Rangers, burying them in darkness and silence.


	66. Episode 13 Ch 5 One

Episode 13, Chapter 5 – Bill

"Zordon," Bill whispered. He remained on the floor, unable to process anything but the name of the being standing before him who was supposed to be dead.

"Dr. Cranston," said the being. It was the first time Billy had ever heard Zordon's voice spoken aloud and not just in his head.

"But… You… How?"

Zordon stood still, his arms folded behind him. His skin was a pale silver, his strong jaw and hooked nose matching that of the face Bill had seen on the Power coin earlier. But those eyes… Bill felt like they pierced his soul, and they never left his gaze. Bill had to look away.

"I am proud of you for reaching this moment," said Zordon. "Few would have survived the cold outside. Even fewer would have found the secret entrance, and only you could have done both and then deciphered the message on the last Power coin."

"But you helped," said Bill, finally finding his voice. "I saw you outside the secret entrance. You helped me find it."

Zordon shook his head. "I did not. Your mind, already attuned to the Power coin inside, led you to the right place."

Bill realized that he was still lying on the ground. He jumped to his feet and brushed the dust off his thin shirt before wiping his glasses. "What happened, Zordon? I thought you were dead."

"In a sense, I have been dead since I split my essence into seven," said Zordon. "It is a deeply unnatural thing, what I did, so much so that from that day forth Nature and I become fundamentally incompatible. I have survived by attaching my essence to other things, be they coins, or humans, or computers. I can never make myself whole again, Dr. Cranston. That is the sacrifice I made for this planet. When I truly die, I will not join my forefathers in the afterlife."

Bill was stunned. His scientific mind had never considered the spiritual ramifications of Zordon's actions. "I'm… sorry," he said lamely.

"You must have many questions for me. Time is greatly of the essence," a faint smile played across Zordon's face. "But I will tell you all that I can. A great decision awaits you, as great a decision as the one I made millions of years ago.

"But first, I will answer your question. What happened. You know that the human Rangers control the elements – light and dark, fire and water, earth and wind – but the final essence… Me… controls the strangest element of them all: Time. This is why I am the essence of Wisdom: you cannot have Wisdom without Time. I kept the seventh essence apart from humans because I believed that no human could live long enough to master Wisdom, so I bound the last coin to this Command Center. My hope was that my inherent wisdom would benefit from the vast databases of knowledge stored here, and I would be able to make even better decisions for the benefit of this planet. For a time, I was right.

"But I grew to rely too much on my own ability. Ten-thousand years ago, I chose the humans who would make up my Power Ranger corps. As you have seen, my wisdom failed me and very nearly doomed the planet. For the past ten millennia I have searched for answers. Where was my folly? How did things go so horribly wrong? The answer, of course, lay in the Dark Dimension. I was blind to the full extent of Rita's ambition; I never thought that she would use our greatest enemy for her own benefit. She and the Black Power were lost to me, and the other powers very nearly so. When the White Ranger banished Rita to Mars, part of me remained trapped there as well. The pain of being so far away from part of myself was… almost unbearable.

"For years I believed that I had to recover the Black Power, but soon I discovered that I could sense parts of Rita's plan. It was faint, of course– just glimpses, visions – but I decided to play a dangerous game and leave the Power be. In the meantime I watched the Earth diligently for any signs of Dark Dimension activity. Then, a few days ago, your space program landed a rover near Rita's position on Mars. I felt her awaken, saw her Power reach Earth and persuade the rover's programmer to free her from her icy prison. I knew I had to act quickly, but I believed that Time would be on my side, as it had always been.

"My first instinct was to summon the five humans I had been tracking for the past twenty years – namely, you and your friends Tom, Jason, Aisha, and a woman named Katherine – but I knew that this should not be so. I allowed the Powers to choose on their own, to find the humans to which they were most attuned. Fittingly, both your protégé and Tom's were among the chosen."

"Jack," said Bill. "And his friend Will." Bill's head swam. Zordon had almost chosen him to be a Ranger. Instead the Power had chosen Jack. Jack! Bill's favorite student, with terrible asthma and an even worse home life. And Tom had just been telling Bill and their friends about Will earlier today, before the attack. Will's family had died some time ago. Will had long felt responsible, and that weight may have destroyed him if not for Tom.

_Such broken people_, thought Bill._ Those two have not had easy lives._

"Yes," said Zordon, perhaps reading Bill's thoughts. "And as this war has progressed, my beliefs were confirmed: the Power had to choose, not me. I had made a mistake by separating Wisdom from Nature and keeping it confined to a computer. Alpha 5 believed that he lacked emotions and I did not, but that is not entirely true. I have forgotten what it means to live, and it is life that brings with it Wisdom. My Power is a shell of its former self.

"Tonight I have seen my five Rangers grow tremendously. One by one they have survived crucibles that have transformed them into better Rangers than I could have ever chosen. But my mastery over Time showed me glimpses of the future and of Rita's plans: she would win, and she had a plan to destroy me. She had created a Ranger of her own. She removed the Dark Dimension's hold on the Black Power and gave that Power to another, then she manipulated him into coming here, a place where nothing of the Dark Dimension may tread. So I acted as best as I could. Seconds before her puppet destroyed this Command Center, I withdrew my essence from the building and placed it into the rainbow coin which you subsequently found and translated. In translating the message, you unleashed this hologram."

"Hologram?" said Bill. "So you're…"

"Yes. This is not my body but a projection of it as it was before I split myself. That tank," he pointed at the large cylinder that had once housed the weird glowing white liquid," is where my essence had focused itself prior to the Black Ranger's arrival here. Rita succeeded in destroying my synthetic body, so to speak, but she did not destroy my mind."

"I still don't understand what I'm doing here. It would take me weeks to rebuild this place, maybe even months."

Zordon's face remained grim. "And so we get to the heart of the matter. Do you recall the message you deciphered on the rainbow coin, Dr. Cranston?"

"Y- yes." Bill thought for a moment. "_Seven from one, and one from seven_. _Honor, Ambition, Strength, Courage, Spirit, Harmony, united in Wisdom, broken by necessity. Such is Zordon the Desperate, last Defender of Earth. His folly may only be redeemed in knowledge and sacrifice._"

"Very good. You translated it, but have you uncovered its meaning?"

Bill thought on the words. "The first part's easy. You split yourself into seven because you had to, and you left Wisdom to be like the leader for the other six. But the last part…"

_His folly may only be redeemed in knowledge and sacrifice_…

"You can fix your mistakes," said Bill. "Through knowledge and sacrifice."

"Yes," said Zordon. Bill felt like he was back in school. "This evening has highlighted my greatest folly: placing Wisdom in a machine, keeping it separate from the humans who hold the rest of my essence. In keeping Wisdom separate, I have left myself to try to impart Wisdom upon others. As a human once wrote, 'Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else."

Bill knew the quote. It was from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a novel from the 1920s. There was a second part to the quote, which Bill also knew. "'Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom,'" he recited. "'One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.'"

Bill gasped. Zordon smiled broadly. "You understand what it means to be wise, though you would never consider yourself to be so."

"Knowledge and sacrifice," said Bill. "You want to connect your essence to a human, not a machine."

_He had wanted me to be a Ranger._

"Yes," said Zordon. "But… Wisdom is different from the other six Powers. If you accept the essence of Wisdom, I will occupy your body as I did this Command Center. My mind will overpower yours, and you may cease to be. Do you understand?"

_Knowledge… and sacrifice._

"I'll die?" Bill asked.

Zordon shrugged. "For all my wisdom, I do not know. Such a thing has never been done before. I fear that little of you will survive the process."

_Little of me survived Trini's death_. Bill's mind raced as it never had before.

"You knew it would come to this," Bill said.

"Yes."

"You've been testing me this whole night. You allowed a non-Ranger into the Command Center because you wanted to use me yourself. You wanted to observe me first-hand."

"Yes."

"If I accept, it may kill me, but the Rangers will beat Rita."

"I cannot guarantee that they will win," admitted Zordon. "But if you do not accept, then I can guarantee that they will lose. Even now the White Ranger is extremely close to death. The five of them are without their powers, and this night has never been more dangerous than it is now."

"Without their powers?" asked Bill. "Can they not transform anymore?"

"When the Command Center was destroyed, it ripped the connection between them and their powers. It… is not impossible for them to regain their powers without me, but such a feat would be akin to shooting a rifle from the moon and expecting it to hit Pluto."

_An analogy I can understand. That'd practically be impossible._

"Then you've left me no choice," said Bill. "I think I made up my mind before I even came here. I've spent my life inside a lab, away from the world. After the one person who truly mattered to me died, I've never cared about what would happen to me."

"Trini Kwan," said Zordon. "The two of you would have been truly remarkable Rangers together."

Bill felt his pulse quickening. He stepped forward, feeling bolder than he ever had before. Closer up, he realized that Zordon was indeed a hologram. Bill could just barely see through him. The rainbow coin spun rapidly within the hologram, where Zordon's heart should be.

"I want her death to mean something," said Bill. He reached through the hologram, straight for the coin at Zordon's heart. "May it find meaning in mine."


	67. Episode 14 Ch 1 Dislocated

Episode 14, Chapter 1 – Jess

She felt her arm dislocate seconds before she actually felt any pain. The sensation of her shoulder popping out of its socket, combined with the constant jostling that was so severe she might have thought someone had shoved her into a dryer, was enough to wake her from unconsciousness. Her shoulder burned with such intensity that she had to fight to focus on remembering what had happened. They had been attacked. The mudmen had come, but they were different. She and April had attacked one… she had gone flying…

Then the pain exploded from her shoulder and up her neck, and she cried out.

"Hey!" said a gruff voice, "cut that out! No screaming unless ole' Rito says you can, got it?" the voice didn't wait for an answer. He resumed talking to whoever was next to him. "Anyways, like I was saying, Sis is gathering all the humans at Central Square for a demonstration. Find the rest of your unit, and be quick about it! Sis hates it when you're late! Gives her such a headache…"

Something clicked and chirped in response. Jess was buffeted by a light wind as the mudman leapt away. Rito kept talking as if he was still there. "Always with the headaches, I swear. Damn woman just needs some Mitol and she'd be fine, but noooooo it's all 'the Dark Dimension will protect me' this and 'stop talking to me' that and 'please for the love of God put on some pants.' You know, I may be a charred, undead skeleton, but I still have feelings, you know?"

A nearby mudman chirped quietly, as if unsure how to answer.

"Damn straight," said Rito. Between the pain and this guy's incessant talking, Jess half-wished she could just go back to being unconscious. By now she had realized that she was strapped to a mudman's back, her arms draped around its hard neck and her wrists tied together. The mudman ran as though it still wasn't used to its legs, which meant that Jess bounced up and down worse than some Playboy bunny on a trampoline. No wonder her arm had dislocated. Now she just hoped that the same wouldn't happen to her _other_ arm.

"Sis thinks she's soooooo clever," continued Rito. "Manipulating the Dark Dimension to help her take over the world. I was so bored manning the portal generator at the fortress. She probably thought it was funny, keeping me as far from the action as possible like that. After a certain point you just gotta cut loose and do your own thing, you know? Rita's not perfect; she makes mistakes, too. Did you know," Rito lowered his voice, but Jess could still hear him like he was standing next to her, "that she cleansed the Dark Dimension from the Black Ranger power just so that she could get her little puppet dude into the Command Center? Dumbest idea I've heard since that Neopolitan guy invaded Siberia! Ha! If this guy was able to break from her spell, he'd be a fully-fledged Ranger again! He'd be a god-damned good guy! Oh well, we probably won't have to worry about that. She has him wrapped around her little finger so tightly that if he moved, the tug would probably make her fart. She gets gassy when she's trying to take over the world, you know."

The mudman chirped a short response. He sounded like he desperately wanted to conversation to end.

"You said it, buddy," continued Rito. "Ever thought of being a therapist? I just feel comfortable talking to you. You got one of those, oh I don't know, trusting faces. Can something have kindly mandibles? Your mandibles look kindly. Don't know what it is, but they do. Hey: unrelated, but d'you like baseball? I was thinking of getting a new league going once Rita takes over the planet. I was thinking we could be the – HEY! What did I say!?" Jess stopped bouncing, though her shoulder continued to sear with fresh waves of pain. She still felt too weak to open her eyes, but her ears worked just fine. Something heavy stomped away from her. A mudman cried out. There was a wet crunching sound, like when Jess used to step on roaches that had infiltrated her house. Rito continued to shout, punctuating every word with another stomping crunch. "I. Told. You. Not. To. Hurt. The. Rangers!" He stopped stomping. Jess' mudman stood frozen, not even breathing for fear of angering Rito further. Jess considered crying out from her own pain to get her mudman killed, but she was too weak to do even that much.

"ANYONE ELSE?" screamed Rito, his happy-go-lucky air completely gone. With the grit in his voice he sounded almost exactly like Goldar now. "Anyone else want to go and hurt one of Rita's most prized possessions? HUH!?" Jess kept still, fearful of which of her fellow Rangers had been injured enough to get their mudman killed.

_Rita wants us alive_, she thought. It was not pleasant information.

"Someone else take that Ranger, and be gentle with her! We'll see if Rita can fix her face when we get there."

_April. Fuck, what did they do to her?_

The mudmen resumed their march. None of them made a sound as they hopped along. Jess wished that her own mudman would learn to fucking walk like a normal… what? Human? Insect? Maybe this _was_ how they normally walked. She decided to wish instead for something that rolled along the street, like a stretcher, or a car. _And we are out in the streets_, she knew. As her senses slowly returned to her, she could feel the warmth of burning buildings pass by on either side. She could taste smoke, and with it came visions of downtown. Through the smoke she could feel the skyscrapers and the approaching Central Square just around the corner. The thoughts confused her. She wasn't psychic, and she knew she wasn't seeing these things with her own eyes. Yet she would swear that she saw these things as they were, simply by breathing in the smoke that filled the entire city.

_This night has driven me insane_, she decided.

She realized that Rito was talking again, and despite herself she couldn't help but listen.

"…Look all that I'm saying is that once this is all over we find the executives at that TV company and torture them for the rest of their lives for cancelling _Firefly_. We can run some string through their ankles, hang them upside-down, roast a few fingers – I'm just spitballing here – maybe skewer an eye or two – ooo! We can murder their families in front of them! That was a good damned show and those idiots deserve pain for what they did to it. I don't see why you have a problem with that."

A mudman clicked a low-pitched response.

Rito laughed. "Disagreeing with me after I stomped one of you into oblivion! I like you! You've got balls – not that I, you know, like balls… I mean that's cool, you know, if you do, but… well you guys don't have balls anyway."

The mudman chirped sadly.

"Frankie – that's your name now – Frankie, I think you and I are going to be friends. Not like best friends or anything, or that weird kind of 'are they or aren't they?' friendship that Squatt and Baboo have, but the kind of friend you think about occasionally with that sort of vague 'oh yeah he is a cool guy' kinda feeling, you know? You're alright, Frankie. I'll put in a good word with the Big Cheese herself sometime in the indeterminate future to see about getting you an upgrade."

An unsure chirp.

"Oh relax, you'll enjoy it! Just an hour ago you all were sad, pathetic goo-people, so weak that the Rangers absolutely slaughtered you with such reckless abandon that I've played video games on God mode and felt more vulnerable than they must have. But now look at you! You're faster, you're stronger, and you're thoroughly less gooey…er. Once Rita conquers this city and has the whole population under her control, she'll harvest the humans' energy for the Dark Dimension to grow her army enough to take over the rest of the country… and then, the world!" He put on a laugh like some overacting James Bond villain. "But seriously, we'll need an admiral. You interested? We can call you Fankie Ackbar!"

_This guy's been frozen for 10,000 years; how does he know anything about pop culture?_ But Jess' head swam with the other information Rito had just given her. _Rita will sap the energy of every human in the city to fuel her army. Every human lost will be one more power source for her and the Dark Dimension… and she wants us alive._ Jess gathered herself and tried to move. She jostled around on the mudman's back more than usual, but she could not break free. All that she accomplished was fresh pain in her arm. _Fuck this shit!_

There was a roar of something like an explosion behind her, and several mudmen cried out. The marching stopped, and Jess' mudman spun around so quickly that it almost flung her clear off its back. Heat blasted her face and lit the inside of her eyelids.

"Hey hey hey!" shouted Rito. "Who started the barbeque!? You there, stop being on fire! Hey!... Oh to hell with it. Let's go, everybody. You. Don't move." Jess' mudman stayed where he was while the rest of the squad rushed past her. "Give her to me," said Rito. Jess felt herself being lifted off the mudman's back and flung over a rock-hard shoulder. Rito jerked suddenly, and the mudman Jess had been riding crunched. "I used to be the Red Ranger too, you know," said Rito quietly. "I don't know if you're conscious or not, but that fire was no accident. And here Sis thought you all had lost your powers. Won't she be surprised?" He took off in a sprint that bounced Jess around even worse than the mudman had. The pain was immense, but Jess restrained herself. Rito was completely uncaring towards his subordinates; she didn't need to give him a new reason to hurt her.

_The fire was no accident_, Rito had said. _But that's impossible. We don't have our powers anymore._

Rito hummed the Scooby Doo theme song as he ran, which Jess took to be her new torture for the flames which must have killed those mudmen. But mercifully she didn't have to suffer for long. Soon Rito stopped and set her down on her feet. She fell to her knees and was steadied by two massive hands.

"Wakey wakey," said Rito. Jess forced her eyes open. Rito's face was inches from hers. To her credit she kept her fear from showing on her face. That charred, grinning skull was a little too appropriate of a face for someone as maniacal as Rito. "Eggs and bakey. Aww don't look so angry. I killed the guy who popped your shoulder out like one of those New Year's thingies! We Red Rangers have to stick together! Now stand up, it's time to meet Sis."

He forced her to her feet. Her vision blackened from the headrush. Rito caught her and held her steady until her vision returned.

Central Square, as its name suggested, sat right in the heart of downtown. Skyscrapers lined two of its four sides, with City Hall marking the western end and the eastern boundary lined by Main Street itself. The skyscrapers miraculously had remained untouched by Rita's army. Thousands of people and even more mudmen crowded the Square. A large platform made of some kind of black material stood before City Hall, almost like Rita was running for an election. Black banners hung from the platform, and mudmen with guns paced around a central podium.

Jess looked around for the other Rangers but couldn't see them in the crowd. _Did Jack and Will get away?_ she wondered, though in truth she didn't want to know the answer. At the very least she knew that April had been brought here, and probably Ewan as well, so instead she focused on looking for any sign of blue or yellow.

Rito yanked her into the crowd. "C'mon, Coppertop," he said. "Up to the front! HEY! UGLY! MAKE WAY!" Every mudman parted before Rito, dragging their humans aside. Rito chuckled to himself. "I say 'ugly' and they all move! Ha! Classic…"

Rito strode forward with Jess in tow, every eye – mudman and human alike – fixed on the two of them. The mudmen jeered and pointed at her. The humans, for the most part, looked away from her gaze when their eyes met. They looked beaten, run down. The fight in them was completely gone. Most were burned or bleeding. All were dirty from soot and soaked to the bone from the downpour which had finally stopped. Jess realized that the light here was different; she had spent so long seeing the city in fire light that she almost didn't recognize the familiar glow of the street lights which flooded the square in false white.

Rito leapt onto the black stage, hauling Jess with him. She fell on her face when they landed and stayed there. She hated Rito. She hated feeling helpless. She hated the mudmen and the citizens of Cedar Grove who had just given up. But most of all she hated Rita. She hated her for the obvious reasons, of course – the wanton destruction of her hometown, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands – but mostly she hated Rita for the personal pain she had caused. Turning Ewan's mom into a monster. Turning Will's adopted dad into an evil Ranger. Hurting her friends. Hurting her brother.

_God damnit_, she thought as she realized that she was crying._ They will not see me like this! If they knew how scared I was…_ She thought again of the cruel irony of her becoming the Red Ranger, the Ranger of Courage. _Too scared to come out of the closet for years. Too scared to let anyone in and see me for who I am. Too scared to… lose Jack._ She punched the ground with her good arm and balanced on her fist. She could feel her knuckles bleeding. She pushed herself onto her feet and faced Rito, who was busy yelling at a mudman who had just brought a mess of blue and blood up onto the stage.

"April," Jess gasped. She couldn't see her friend's face, but the blood was evidence enough that something was wrong.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU 'HAVEN'T FOUND HIM'?" Rito was screaming. "They aren't Rangers anymore! They're just humans! And he wasn't even fucking conscious! Everyone! Look for a young, ugly little human boy in yellow! And be quick about it!"

A mudman standing at the base of the stage shrugged his four arms and shook his head, clicking away an excuse. Rito pointed his sword at the mudman and unleashed a jet of flame. The humans nearby screamed and leapt back. One woman's clothes caught on fire. Those around her helped stamp it out, but not after it had burned a good portion of her leg. Her whimpers of pain brought Jess' blood to boiling.

"Someone shut her up," growled Rito.

"No," said a new voice. "Let her suffer."

A hand alighted on Jess' shoulder. She brushed it off immediately and spun. Black dress. Long black hair. Slit yellow eyes.

At long last, Rita Repulsa had appeared.


	68. Episode 14 Ch 2 Central Square

Episode 14, Chapter 2 – Ewan

_Shake it off man, shake it off. You escaped… How the fuck did you escape… How the fuck…_

Ewan crouched behind the counter of Cedar Grove's downtown Abercrombie clothing store, his heart racing and his mind even more confused than usual. He had woken up on the back of a particularly ugly mudman with only three arms and half its nasty jaw missing. They had been running along Main Street, and Ewan had been thinking of just how desperately he wanted to escape when fire from the buildings around them literally leaped into the street and consumed the whole back of the mudman column. In all the confusion, Ewan found himself catapulted from the back of his captor and through the shattered window of the clothing store. He didn't know how it had happened. It felt like his old wind power had returned to push him off the mudman's back, but of course that was impossible.

_The mudman must have thrown me by accident or something_, he reasoned, even if it didn't make much sense. _Anyway, I'm here now. Time for a change of clothes_.

Most of the store was burned beyond recognition, but here and there he found some shorts and a polo shirt which fit him reasonably well. He kept his Ranger uniform shoes but hid the rest of his yellow gi under the counter. He thought about getting some proper underwear instead of his star-spangled Speedo, but in the end he decided that perhaps the tiny bundle of fabric was his lucky charm. After all, he wasn't dead yet.

_Now what?_

No more mudmen had come by the building while he had rummaged. The buildings on the other side of the street were little more than burned-out, lifeless shells, and he knew that the mudmen which had been transporting him had gone off to the right of where he was now. To follow them would be suicide.

He peered out the front door and glanced left. Main Street ran in a perfectly straight line through the rest of downtown, spotted here and there with a few rare street lights that still worked. The world was lifeless, the only movement was that of fire and shadow. _No more God-damned rain, at least._ Ewan didn't think of his mother, or Alpha 5, or the other Rangers. If any of them were still out there, he hadn't the slightest idea of where to start looking, and even if he could find them, he couldn't do anything. No, to think of them right now would break what little spirit he still clung to.

He bolted from the Abercrombie store and tore down the sidewalk at top speed – for about two seconds. Steel groaned in the building next to him, the one from which fire had somehow attacked the mudmen and given Ewan his window of opportunity. Ewan looked up at the building's top some seven or eight stories up. Was the light playing with him, or was the building swaying?

A large chunk of building fell through the night and crashed into the sidewalk just in front of Ewan. He danced backward, dodging more and more debris until at last the entire building followed suit. Ewan turned and ran all-out back in the direction he had come as the building tumbled into the street, effectively blocking his path.

"Alright," he said with a mirthless grin, "suicide it is."

Death met him every step of the way down Main Street. What had once been the main artery of Cedar Grove was now full of bombed-out shop fronts, bodies in the gutters, cars on fire, dark puddles virtually everywhere that may have been water or blood. _Even if we won_, Ewan thought, _how would the city ever recover? Cedar Grove is dead. This is just… beyond repair._ Rita never had to kill all of the citizens. Destroy enough of the city, and Cedar Grove could never survive. This wasn't like some Godzilla movie where Tokyo gets flattened and then magically rebuilds before the next film. The reality was that Cedar Grove was dead, or very close to it. _One more casualty for Rita to answer for._

Slowly, sounds of life met Ewan's ears. He remembered Alpha saying that Rita's forces were gathering in Central Square, and he was just about to duck into a nearby alleyway when he saw a small crowd of humans heading in the same direction that he was. On impulse, he ditched the alley and eased himself into the back of the group. An older man was the only one to notice. Their eyes met, but Ewan saw no life left in the man as he returned his gaze to the ground. _Rita's even killed the people who are still alive_, thought Ewan, though he quickly decided that that sounded too hokey and vowed never to think it again.

Ewan's band of humans turned a corner and found themselves becoming a part of an absolute sea of humans and mudmen. There had to be well over a hundred-thousand people there, and more still trickled in from other roads and alleys along the edges. A small grouping of people had gathered on a distant stage, but they were too small to make out.

"What's going on?" asked one of the people who had arrived with Ewan. Another human was just about to answer when a nearby mudman punched him in the face with its pincher-like fist. The other cowered in silence, and one by one the small group dissipated into the masses.

_I have to get closer to that stage_, Ewan decided. He began weaving through the crowd, and though the mudmen continued to discourage talking, Ewan still caught snips of conversation as he went.

"—hear there's going to be an execution."

"Maybe we'll finally get some answers."

"…going to kill us all."

"This voice inside my head… it _commanded_ me to come here."

"Me too!"

"Can't see a damned thing."

"I followed a group of those monsters because they had my boyfriend."

"I told that girl with the crazy ice gun that she could shove it—"

"Have you seen my mommy?"

The last one dropped a pit in Ewan's stomach. His mom was dead now, a monster in Rita's army. For all he knew, she could be one of the mudmen in this crowd. He ducked his face and pressed on.

A murmur rippled through the crowd. Ewan stopped and looked up. It was still hard to see the stage from where he was, but now a huge screen of black had formed above the stage. On it appeared a face Ewan had glimpsed in flashbacks from the old Yellow Ranger.

_Rita_, Ewan thought. _The bitch finally came out to play_.

"Citizens of Cedar Grove," said a rich female voice. Ewan could see no speakers, yet Rita's voice washed over the crowd, magnified by some unseen force. "I am Rita Repulsa, your new ruler."

Ewan continued to push forward while the humans in the crowd whispered amongst themselves. One or two grew belligerent enough to be put down by nearby mudmen. The rest were quick learners and quieted down.

"I understand that you Americans elect your leaders with a popular vote," said Rita. "Where I come from, we do things a little differently." She waved a hand casually. A pair of mudmen marched a third figure up the stairs and onto the stage. "Where I come from," Rita continued, "it was customary to challenge the leader to a duel. If you killed him, you were the new leader." The mudmen threw their captive at Rita's feet. Ewan recognized him as the Mayor, though for the life of him he couldn't remember the guy's name.

_She can't fight the Mayor_, Ewan thought. _He wouldn't stand a chance_. The Mayor stayed on his knees next to Rita, quietly sobbing as a trickle of blood ran down through his disheveled hair.

"But I am a fair leader," said Rita. "And since I am here, I will do things your way. I will put it to a vote: me or him. Who votes for this man?"

A small spattering of hands shot up in the crowd, including a man standing right next to Ewan. The nearest mudmen swiped, and the arm fell to the ground in a spray of blood. The man cried out, clutching his new stump. From the sounds of screams, the other voters shared similar fates.

"Anyone else voting for the honorable incumbent?" asked Rita. No one else was dumb enough to fall for that. "Alright, hands down. Now, all those in favor of me, please raise your hands."

Slowly, silently, most hands went up. Ewan pushed ever forward, though he kept his hands down.

"Thank you all for your support," said Rita, and dammit she almost sounded like she meant it. "As I said, I am Rita Repulsa. For the past ten-thousand years I was kept imprisoned by an oppressive being called Zordon. Did you know that aliens have controlled this planet since dinosaurs roamed? Of course you didn't. They worked in secret, for if you ever learned of their manipulations, you would have risen up against them, and they didn't want that. Oh no, they reveled in their secret power.

"But people like me realized the truth. We fought back, and slowly, their numbers dwindled until just one remained. This Zordon has watched all of you. He has noted your sins, your shortcomings, all under the guise of 'protecting' you. But this is America! Land of the free and home of the brave! Your forefathers gave their lives so that their children – you – would never have to live under such tyranny. Zordon would seek to control you for his own purposes. In the end, he convinced five of your youth to join with him and maintain his order. My liberators have slain three of them. I have the two survivors here with me. Stand up, ladies."

"Shit." Ewan couldn't help but swear. Jess and April appeared next to Rita, and while Jess looked alright, April's face had a huge bloody rip down her forehead, through her eye and deep into her cheek.

"These… Power Rangers…" Rita spit out the name like someone had shit in her soup, "have spent the evening undoing this great city. They hid behind masks and false faces just as Zordon has hid in the shadows, but now they have been revealed… unappealing though they may be."

A few in the audience chuckled. To Jess' credit, she didn't rise to the insult. April looked like she was barely conscious as it was.

"Earlier this evening my prime agent infiltrated Zordon's base and slew him, freeing this planet from his prying eyes and intervening ways. And with his final two minions captured, Zordon's end is almost complete. By the time day breaks, I will have proven the corruption of these two to you, and you will cheer on my forces as they execute these last vestiges of control.

"Now, some of you may ask, 'wasn't it your army that has laid waste to the city?' It is a reasonable question, and I will not deny that my Putties have indeed destroyed many buildings. But their strikes have not been without purpose. Their targets shared a commonality between them: each building destroyed has somehow enslaved you. How many of you work dead-end jobs you hate, and yet you feel as though you cannot escape? You fear what would become of you without a steady income. Society would not support you and your dreams; it doesn't care about you. So you toil on, numbing yourself with your work until you don't even notice the pain anymore.

"And how many of you live your lives enslaved by _things_? You must have the nicest clothes, the hottest shoes, the latest game, the biggest TV, or else you won't fit in. This society will not accept you unless you buy the things it demands you buy. Your children know more corporate mascots than they do world leaders. Do you see the truth now? I am not your captor; I am your liberator. I have destroyed those places which are your chains. I will not treat you as your past leaders have. I will not spy on you as Zordon once did. I will allow you to be free to make your own choices. I will restore freedom not seen on this Earth since my youth over ten-thousand years ago."

No one in the crowd spoke, but fewer were frowning than Ewan would have hoped. He had to admit that Rita made a convincing argument, but he knew they were all lies… weren't they?

Rita flicked a wrist, and a familiar image appeared on the giant screen. "Who here has used Google Street View?" she asked. The question caught everyone off-guard, but a great deal of people raised their hands timidly. Some even laughed. People were starting to _like_ Rita. Ewan knew, to his shame, that the Ewan of yesterday would have been fully taken in by Rita's cavalier attitude and wildly attractive form. To his shock, he found himself _not_ blaming those in the crowd who were taking her side.

The image on the black screen was a satellite's zoomed-in view of the very square where they all now stood. "Did you know," said Rita, "that the great majority of people who use this fascinating technology do nothing but look at their own house?" The crowd laughed. Several people nodded and admitted being guilty of doing exactly that.

It was the answer Rita had expected. A thin smile flashed across her lips. "You humans have so much at your fingertips, yet you squander it all." The crowd stopped laughing. "Have you any idea how rare the Earth is? How rare _you_ are? No, because you are too busy cheering on your favorite team when they're losing, or picking out your newest phone even as the manufacturer gets ready to put an even newer model on the market for you to envy. The selfishness of humans is legendary. It's how society has raised you. But it's not your fault. You have been conditioned to care about a sports team that just wants your money. You have been raised to believe you need that new phone, for if you don't, you won't fit in with everyone else. You won't be loved. You won't have that sense of belonging. You won't have a _family_."

Ewan was close enough to the stage to see everyone clearly now. As Rita talked, more of her henchmen appeared: Squatt and Baboo, Goldar, Rito, and a host of mudmen with assault rifles. Ewan glanced around and noticed several more gunmen hanging from the sides of the skyscrapers around the square. Rita's speech was inviting, but the actions of her army said otherwise.

At the word _family_, several more mudmen marched onto the stage with captives.

"This brings me to my final point," said Rita. "The myth of family. As I said before, I have onstage the last two fanatics acting under Zordon's false sense of protection. These people," Rita waved towards the people being hauled onto the stage, "are what's left of their families."

Ewan had seen Jack and Jess' parents a handful of times. Friends were never welcome at their house, so most of the time Will and Jack came over to Ewan's, if only because his mother usually baked them cookies. Jack rarely talked about his parents, but Ewan had learned over the years that Mr. Kelly was a raging alcoholic, and Mrs. Kelly was a thieving enabler who cheated the system. They called Jack "nerd" and questioned his manhood. Mr. Kelly even challenged him to arm wrestling matches just to prove how weak Jack was. And they fought with Jess any time she was at home and belittled her constantly just because she liked girls, something for which Ewan certainly could never fault her.

Now they begged for Jess' attention as though they had always been perfect, loving parents. She stared straight ahead, ignoring them completely.

Ewan assumed that the third adult on the stage was April's mother, though there wasn't much of a family resemblance. She cried when she saw April. She tried to break free from her captors and hug her child, but the mudmen hit her across the face and help her where she was. Behind April's mother, another mudman clutched at the cuff of a young girl. She couldn't be any more than four years old. From her looks, she obviously wasn't related to any of the Rangers.

"My point is this," said Rita. "Family makes you weak." Ewan thought of the old Yellow Ranger, how Rita had torched her village, killed her family, and driven her mad with the false promise of reviving them. "Family leads you to forsake your fellow man and make decisions against the greater good of the human race. Family makes it okay for you to turn to an 'us vs. them' mentality. It splinters the population and fosters ill will between friends. I have summoned these three, who are the parents of these misguided children, to illustrate my point."

Rita turned to Jess and April. As if seeing April's disfigured face for the first time, she made a show of surprise and disdain. She extended her arm, and a long staff leapt from her own shadow and into her hand. She aimed it at April, and just as Ewan was about to scream for her to stop, thin tendrils of shadow swept over April's face, removing the blood and closing the cut that ran down her face. Several in the audience cheered at Rita's apparent benevolence, but just as many booed and shouted for her to kill the oppressors.

_Not a good sign_, thought Ewan.

"I present you with a choice," said Rita. "I will start with you… Jessica Kelly. Whom would you save: your parents, or this innocent child?" Rita ushered the young girl forward so that everyone could see her. She really was adorable, with tangled blonde hair and big blue eyes and a pouty lip and a dirty, soggy teddy bear clutched under an arm.

At the challenge, the audience gasped. Many who had been leaning towards Rita now second-guessed. "Surely she wouldn't kill those people," someone whispered near Ewan. Ewan tried not to grin; if Rita killed anyone, it would work against everything she had said so far. She had set herself up to fail.

Jess said nothing. She stared straight ahead, her mouth a very thin line.

"You won't take up my challenge?" asked Rita innocently. "Very well. I will ask you, April Johnson: whom would _you_ save?" Rita turned to the audience. "Zordon has forced my hand in this. I do not wish to kill anyone on this stage, but I must make a point if I am to free your minds. Family – the illusion of preference based on genetics or time or happenstance – is humanity's greatest form of enslavement. But I get ahead of myself. As I said, Zordon has forced my hand. April Johnson, you have thirty seconds to choose or they all die, even young Jessica. So, do you save this adorable, innocent little girl… or your dear friend's parents?"


	69. Episode 14 Ch 3 Yin and Yang

Episode 14, Chapter 3 – Will

"_Yadol_!"

"YADOL!"

"_Ahop_!"

"AHOP!"

"_Yool_!"

"YOOL!"

The class finished the last punch and bowed. Their master bowed in response but did not give them the signal that class was over.

"You've all trained hard," said the master. "But not hard enough. You hold too much of yourselves back. If you want to truly succeed in this class, you must give me everything. Who here is prepared to do that? You? What about you?" There was a long pause as all of the students avoided their master's gaze… except one. "You," said the master. The students parted to reveal the only student in a white gi. "You will fight me."

"Something's not right…" the student muttered to himself. The others shushed him immediately and backed away. Soon all were seated around the edge of the practice mats except for the master in black and the student in white. They began to circle one another, a perfect yin-yang.

"You hold so much back," said the master. "Why? What are you afraid of?"

The student frowned and shook his head, as if trying to rattle his brain into remembering.

"You don't have to be afraid of me," said the master. "I am here to guide you. But you must not soften your blows when you attack me. You must not soften yourself. Harden your mind, sharpen it into a tool you can use to utterly destroy your opponents. Now tell me: _what are you afraid of?_"

The student continued to circle his master, but a little thought clawed at the edges of his mind, and odd sights danced just beyond his vision. Someone called to him as though from a dream. The voice knew his name, though he could not recall it.

"I am…" he said. "I am afraid of…" Three caskets flashed through his memory. He cried out and leapt at his master, attacking blindly in a rush that the master easily countered. In a moment, the student lay on his back.

"Get up," said the master. "Do it again." The student climbed to his feet, but the rage of his visions urged him to attack again. "Focus!" shouted the master as the student found himself elbowed in the face. "Anger is an expression of fear. What are you afraid of? Tell me!"

The student was about to answer when he heard his name again. _Will_, said the voice. He stopped and looked for its source, but no one else seemed to have heard it.

_I am Will_, he thought. _Those caskets were my family_.

"I know what it is I fear," said Will.

The master smiled. "Good. Knowing the fear within you lets you exploit the fears of others. Harness it, instill it in your opponent. Fear is knowledge, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Make me fear you, child. Focus!"

_Something's not right_, Will thought again. The master had told him to focus, so he did so. Specific details fell away from his sight wherever he looked, replaced only by darkness. One by one the students around the practice mat blackened and turned to mud. The mat itself dissolved into a dark gray cloud until, at last, Will stood in a misty void with the master and a crowd of mudmen.

Will tried to focus on the person standing before him, but its appearance changed continually: one moment Master Tom, the next Rita Repulsa. Will's stomach dropped; the master had been this way the whole time. His mind had simply accepted him… or her?

_I am Will Weston_, he thought. Everything was becoming clear now. _I was a Power Ranger. I touched the Void Weed, and… now I'm here. Where am I_?

Master Tom/Rita looked at the room around it. "The Dark Dimension knows your desires and exploits them," it said. "You wish for things to be as they were before the attack on the city. You wish you could train with your master again, and you fear the loss of your loved ones. You are not hard to read, Will Weston. Not hard at all. People as _good_ as you are always so predictable."

Will did not move. He had heard Ewan's and April's stories of the Dark Dimension; he knew that escape was futile. "What do you want?" he asked.

The master twitched, as though in pain. When it looked at Will again, its expression was frantic, pleading. "Will!" it cried. "Oh Will, it's good to see you, buddy!" The master twitched again, and its expression became lofty and contemptuous.

_What the hell is going on here_?

"You are dead, Will," said the master. "You touched the Void Weed, and Dark Matter consumed you from the inside out. Your consciousness will languish here forever."

"So you've won," said Will. "Congratulations. Why bother with me then if I'm just a corpse?"

"Because I know you." The master grinned as both Tom and Rita at once. "Tom and Rita are one. Her memories are mine, and _his_ memories are mine. I know everything about you. In a way, I have you to thank for finding Tom for me in the first place. When you gave me this," the master pulled a familiar white coin from its pocket, "your essence led me to him. You two are so alike, you know. So honorable, yet so ambitious. You would do anything to get your way… it just so happens that 'your way' involves saving others. A rarity in humans these days."

The master twitched, cried out. It held its head and screamed in two voices. When it regained itself, it looked at Will with eyes that were all Tom's. "Will, you have to believe me! You can still save yourse – AAAAGH!"

Will's mind raced as the master fought with itself. _This could all be a trick. Rita could be playing with me. I want to believe that Master Tom is fighting her control, but Rita could be using that belief to play me into a trap. But how can I know? I must not trust anything she… or he… says. I have to remain cold._

"You wouldn't come to me unless something was wrong," said Will. "I may be stuck in here, but out there you're losing to a group of kids you outnumber a thousand to one."

It was a bluff, and the master called it. "Losing?" it laughed. "We have already won, _buddy_." It spat Master Tom's favorite nickname like venom. "I only came to offer my condolences. You fought so valiantly and died so quickly. Your friends will soon join you here."

_Will_.

"Now that I know your fears, I know you."

_Will, trust in Honor_.

"And now that I know you, I can control the White Ranger power and make a puppet out of you like I did your precious master."

_Honor is incorruptible_.

Will thought he knew that voice, but that was impossible. Zordon was dead… and yet, it didn't feel like some kind of Dark Dimension trick. _Honor_… he thought. _What is Zordon trying to tell me_?

The master held the white coin in its hand, as if daring Will to step forward and reclaim it. Master and student stood still, neither risking a move closer to the other, the white coin practically screaming for Will to reclaim it from the master's hand.

_Trust in Honor_, Will thought.

"All night," he said, "we've been one step behind you, Rita. We've been on the defensive." He circled to the side, restarting the dance between student and master, yin and yang, light and dark. Rita circled the other way, more than happy to oblige. "You've had ten-thousand years to plan for this day. Us? We had about five minutes. Of course you had planned for everything. You knew Zordon would choose new Rangers. You knew he'd give them the power coins just as he had you. You knew you could capture one of us, and you even knew that you could get one of us to sacrifice our own coin to save him."

_With all my heart, I wish to save humanity, even if it means I must sacrifice myself and my family. Master, I am so sorry_.

"But there was one thing you didn't count on," said Will. He held out his hand. In it was not a coin but, to the master's – and Will's – surprise, a shining orb of brilliant white. "Zordon let the power choose. We don't need our coins. We never did. It's in each of us."

The master's eyes went wide. It screeched, and it and all the mudmen leapt forward to try to snatch the orb from Will's hands.

The white orb exploded and bathed Will in warmth. Rather than blind him, the light shone through the black of the Dark Dimension and melted it all away – mist, mudmen, master – until Will could see nothing but pure white.

_Will_, said the voice again.

"Zordon," said Will.

The voice hesitated. _Mostly_, it said, and for the first time Will noticed a different tone to the voice. It was still Zordon but… lighter.

"I guess I really am dead," said Will. It wasn't despair; just a statement of fact.

_May my sacrifice not have been in vain._

"Thank you for getting me out of there, Zordon."

_I did nothing. The voice you heard, and the power you displayed, they were all from you. You have done so well, Will. I am very proud of you. _ _But time is woefully against us. The Dark Dimension consumed your body, but Rita ensured its survival in the hopes of using it to form her own White Ranger. You are both dead… and alive._

"That's… good? But didn't you die? What happened, Zordon?"

Silver shimmered into the white before him. A being stepped through, until suddenly Professor Cranston stood before him. Will was too surprised to speak.

"As I said, there is little time." The professor spoke with Zordon's voice. Will's mouth dropped. "You saw through Rita's trick, Will. She sought to play into your fears and insecurities, just as you suspected. She knew that you would mistrust her after learning of the others' experience, so she believed that she could get you to act cold and distant towards her, perhaps fight her. Had you touched her or your coin of your own free will, you would have been lost forever."

"She played into my fears," said Will. "Losing people. I've already lost my parents… my sister. The thought of losing Master Tom… That pain is just too much, Zordon. I couldn't handle it."

"And yet, you did. Rita allowed aspects of your old master to slip through her façade to try to trick you into believing that he could still be saved. She hoped that you would give yourself up to save him. She wanted you to lose sight of the bigger picture and act to your own selfish ends… As she said, there is much of you in Tom Oliver, and vice versa. She has dominated him in the same way that she could dominate you if you allowed it. She almost succeeded just now."

"But I'm not ambitious. She was lying."

The Professor shook his head. "No, she was not. Ambition does not just refer to one's own worldly gain. It is the length to which one will go to achieve what is most important to him. You will go to any length to save others. Rita tried to play into that by showing you signs of your old master. Had you reached for you old coin, even if it were to save Tom, Rita would have had you forever. But your Honor won out. You sacrificed the chance to save your Master Tom. It could not have been an easy choice, but Honor rarely is. In that sacrifice, you helped break the Dark Dimension's barrier, and you escaped."

"Is he totally gone?" blurted Will. He realized that he didn't want to know the answer, but it was too late.

"He… is not," said Zordon. "But the more you believe he can be saved, the more you play into Rita's hand. Focus on saving him, and we will lose. Do you understand?"

Will's heart wanted to grieve. It felt like he had lost Master Tom for the second time that night. Old feelings from the hospital years ago flooded back. He felt his eyes water, but he forced the thought away. Save the world, or save nothing. In the end, there really was just one choice. He allowed his moment of grief to pass before steeling himself. "…I do. So… what's next?"

Professor Cranston grinned and pushed his glasses up his nose. "I've been busy working on my Quad-D: the Dark Dimension Disruption Device. It's what brought me to you, and it's what can get you out. Will, it's time to bring you back. We have a world to save."


	70. Episode 14 Ch 4 Broken

_Author's note: Sorry for the lengthy delay. School and work have absolutely crushed my life this past month. On the bright side, the chapter after this one is almost finished up (I usually try to stay a few chapters ahead of what's published just in case some plot point doesn't end up panning out very well), so you won't have to wait very long for that one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and thanks for sticking with the story for this long. - Lightwing_

Episode 14, Chapter 4 – Jack

Jack knew that he had manipulated earth. He just knew it. Unfortunately, he found it a little hard to celebrate at the moment. As the building had caved in on their heads, Jack, in desperation, had instinctively tried to pull a dome of rock over him and Will's body.

And dammit, he had done exactly that.

The building debris thudded harmlessly against the rock that now protected Jack. A deafening roar, a bit of scratching here and there by what he had assumed was a few roaming mudmen, then… profound silence. Jack sat, deaf and blind, next to his fallen friend. _Need to slow my breathing_, he thought. _Limited oxygen. Small space. I'd wager I have… an hour? Maybe a little more if I can calm the hell down._

But he couldn't. Claustrophobia set in. The walls pushed in from all sides in the darkness. Jack tried to move the rock again, but this time nothing happened. If he really had called his powers to save him, then now there was nothing to un-save him. He had doomed himself and Will to a slow death of suffocation.

_All this rock and no air_, Jack thought bitterly, his heart racing and his mind growing hazy. _No light, no water, no fire. How wretchedly symbolic_. He felt around for Will next to him. Will's breaths were as shallow as Jack's, but at least he still breathed.

Jack didn't want to think about the others. Ewan, Jess, and April had all been captured. Alpha was… The sight of that monster ripping his sword up through Alpha's body made Jack jump and bump his head on the low rock ceiling. Alpha was gone. He had tried to save his Rangers. He had died for them.

Jack had seen death before. When he was little, his dad used to swerve to try to hit creatures crossing the road, just because it made Jack cry. His dad would always turn to him and say "kid, you need to grow a pair, you hear me? Your sister has bigger balls than you!" Jack used to try to be strong like his dad wanted, but it was never enough. Eventually, he stopped trying. Back then, Jack thought he was just "being more himself." _But I was only rebelling. I used to think that I was mature for bucking my dad; reality was that I was just being the version of myself that Dad hated the most_. Part of him liked making his dad angry, and it was that part now that ashamed Jack the most.

_I'm not strong_, he thought. _I've always known that. Zordon's power was a fantasy I wanted to believe. Now he's gone. They're all gone_.

The image of Jess unconscious and slung over a mudman's shoulder pushed its way into Jack's memory. He fought back his anger. _She could still be alright_. She was totally vulnerable. _She could still be alright_. She was at the mercy of Rita Repulsa. _She could still be… dead. God dammit get a hold of your thoughts, Jack_!

He placed a hand on Will again. Will was cold and no longer moving. When had he stopped breathing?

Jack swore and fumbled around to try CPR. Instead he slammed his head in the rock above him and fell over, swearing again and punching the rock until he suspected he had broken a bone in his hand. He yelled and screamed and cursed the darkness, cursed Rita, cursed everything that had happened in this night from hell. His sister and friends had been taken, and Will, his best friend, lay dead next to him. Jack hadn't been able to save anyone.

_Will would have been able to save me_, he thought.

He felt himself crying. He knew from experience that his tears were probably spattered over his glasses by now, but he didn't care. It was too dark to see.

"FUCK THIS!" he screamed. He kicked at the darkness and felt foot collide with rock. He kicked again and again, ignoring the jolting pain that shot up his leg each time. If he wore himself out, maybe he'd die faster.

Jack heard a faint _crack!_ He stopped and tried to feel the rock with his half-broken hand. He winced when he jammed a finger into the dome. He heard the sound again, only this time he realized that it wasn't a _crack! _but someone whispering his name. _Jack_.

He froze. "Will?" he asked.

Jack saw visions of rock and stone bathed in a pale light. At first he didn't understand, but slowly he realized that these were not visions but the actual rock that surrounded him. There was a light inside the dome. Slowly, he turned to Will's body.

Tendrils of light threaded their way around Will, starting from his heart and working their way both up and down his blackened corpse. Jack could only stare, unsure of what was happening. His glasses, he dimly noted, were indeed tear-streaked. He took them off.

The light inside the tiny dome grew to the point where Jack could no longer look directly at it, and so much light bounced off the rock walls that eventually he just closed his eyes altogether. He didn't know what was happening to his friend, but it didn't feel like anything of Rita's. Jack had used his rock powers after Zordon's death; maybe Will could use his light powers after his own death?

_Jack_.

A flash lit up the inside of Jack's eyelids, and then the light dimmed. The feel of the air changed. A breeze played with Jack's hair, bringing with it the now-familiar smell of smoke and ash. Uncertain, Jack put his glasses back on and opened his eyes.

The rock dome was gone, replaced by a small crater that sat amidst the ruins of the apartment building where Alpha 5 had met his end. Fire and streetlights combined to cast the area in a contrast of light that shifted and danced with the wind, casting shadows about the rubble that reminded Jack uncomfortably of mudmen. Beyond the lights, the city was quiet underneath black clouds that threatened to resume their downpour at any moment.

All of this registered in Jack's mind, but none of it mattered in the slightest compared to what stood before him. Where Will's body had laid a moment before, there now stood a man armored in white and silver. The armor was smooth and form-fitting, and as it shimmered in the light it seemed to give off a bit of its own. The man wore a belt of black adorned with several small pockets, and a gun sat in a holster on his hip while another rested in a smaller holster on his thigh. Instead of a hood, the man wore a sleek white biker's helmet with a golden lion's pattern that matched the lion symbol emblazoned on the man's chest. Eyes glowed beneath the visor with a familiar white light.

"Hey Jack," the man said.

Jack froze, utterly dumbfounded. "Will? But… how?"

_"I believe I owe you an explanation."_

Jack jumped. The voice had been inside his head, and it had sounded both like Zordon… and Professor Cranston.

"Professor?" he stammered.

_"Yes… and no."_ The air shifted around them. The breeze died, and the fires in the buildings around them stopped their dance. A being of silver stepped through an invisible door and stood beside Will. Its body glowed with an inner light. Its face watched his, featureless, with eyes that burned silver. "Jack," it said. When it spoke, shadows of other features played across its face. For a moment, it was Professor Cranston again. Will stood with his arms folded, content to let the being speak for itself. "Of all the Rangers, I believe I owe you the greatest apology."

"What happened?" Jack asked. "What… are you?"

"I am Zordon, and I am Bill Cranston. When the Black Ranger invaded the Command Center, he believed he had destroyed me, when in fact he had only destroyed my bodily anchor to this world. So long as my Rangers survive, so too do I. Bill Cranston merged with my Essence of Wisdom, and…"

The being wrenched its head to the side, as though in pain. "And here we are," it finished, this time distinctly with the Professor's voice. It shook its head to regain itself.

"Though not without some difficulty," it added with Zordon's voice.

"So now you can leave the Command Center?" asked Jack.

"We are projecting our form to you. Merging with the Professor has altered many things."

"New suits," offered Will. He posed helpfully.

"Yes," said Zordon. "New armor, and new weapons in for this war. Too long did I remain static in my Command Center. I did not evolve along with the planet I swore to protect. With Dr. Cranston's aid, my powers may grow far beyond their former capabilities. But that is for another time."

"Time…" said Jack. He glanced around him and realized that the world appeared frozen in place outside of their little crater. "Can you stop time!? We could use this against Rita!"

"I have only altered yours and Will's perceptions of time so that I may bring you up to speed. The world moves as it normally does; I am conveying this information to your mind at a rate faster than Earth's time-space typically allows."

Jack stared. He was far too exhausted to try to work out what Zordon was saying.

"As I said," Zordon's featureless face appeared to grin, "that is for another time. Jack, if you are willing, I must call on your Strength once more."

"My Strength?" Jack laughed. "I don't know if you saw me a few seconds ago, but my 'strength' is gone. It was never there. When I tried to save someone, he died and I nearly killed myself. I broke my damn hand on rock that _I_ created!"

Will stepped forward. "But I didn't die. You saved me, Jack. You're the strongest of us all. I really owe you one."

"But the others, man…" Jack fought back the tears. "Jess… they… were all taken."

"And I can't get them back alone. Come on, man. It's time to suit up."

"Suit up," Jack repeated weakly. The sudden turnaround of events had left his mind reeling. "Got it. I'll just… do that, then. Can we teleport to Central Square?"

Will laughed in that way he had when he knew something Jack didn't… which was rare. "Teleportation is so yesterday, dude. I'll get us there in style."


	71. Episode 14 Ch 5 Discord

Episode 14, Chapter 5 – April

"April Johnson, you have thirty seconds to choose or they all die, even young Jessica. So, do you save this adorable, innocent little girl… or your dear friend's parents?"

April screamed through a mouthful of blood, but no one could hear her. Rita had made a show of "healing" the cut across her face, but it had all been a trick. She hadn't healed anything; instead, Rita had woven a spell into April's blood that prevented her from saying anything except what Rita wanted her to say. And while Rita spoke to the audience, with her back to April, the Ranger could see a face in the shadows that obscured Rita's back. It stared at her with blood-red eyes and a wicked grin.

Then Rita turned, and the shadow was gone. She gestured April towards the captives: Jess' parents, soaked to the bone and covered in mud and blood, and…

The "adorable, innocent little girl" was April's mother, wearing a blonde wig that shimmered with Rita's enchantments. Goldar stood over her, flaming sword in hand and looking as though he wanted nothing more than to drive it through the woman's neck. April could see another of Rita's enchantments hanging over a nearby mudman. It was supposed to fool the crowd into thinking that _that_ creature was April's mother. No one would know who the little girl truly was. Rita had manipulated the shadows for a greater game. She would have April choose between saving Jess' deadbeat parents and her own mother. April couldn't tell if Jess could see what she could, but she suspected not. The cut across April's face had all but blinded her; all of her sight now filtered through a vision that she herself did not understand but, she hoped, came some remnant of Zordon's powers.

"Fuck my parents," groaned Jess. She clutched her shoulder, which hung dislocated from their rough piggyback ride to the Square. "Save the little girl, April. She doesn't deserve any of this." Jess' mother wailed. Her father showed a flash of anger that reminded April of her own father.

"Twenty seconds," said Rita. "Please hurry." She made a face to the audience as though she was legitimately concerned about her captives' safety, but April could see the grin in the shadow.

_Could that shadow be Rita's true form_? April wondered. Her skin prickled when she looked at it. She wished it would stop staring at her. She did her best to focus on the task at hand, but her choice was impossible: her mother, whom she loved dearly, or Jess' parents, whom Jess clearly hated?

_If I don't choose, Jess dies. But my choice will cause the death of someone important to us! How could I possibly do this? And what does Rita have to gain by masking the identity of my mom_?

"April," her mother said through tears, "is it true? Are _you_ one of the guardian angels?"

April tried to speak, but Rita's spell kept her silent. The shadow laughed at her impotence. The crowd started to grow agitated. Several began shouting for her to choose. Most, incited by Rita's speech about how family makes you weak, urged April to spare the child and let the parents die.

"Ten seconds!" cried Rita. "I beg you to choose, young one! Zordon's spell here is strong! If you do not make a decision, it will kill all of these innocent humans!"

_She puts the blame on Zordon_, thought April. _Lie after lie after lie_…

April's time was up. She had no doubt that Rita would not hesitate to kill everyone on the stage to prove her point. _I cannot sacrifice the family of another for this_. She tried to fight back tears, but it was no use.

"Mom," said April, "I'm so sorry. I have to save the Kellys." To April's credit, she didn't cry, and her voice didn't break.

April's mother tried to speak, but Goldar shoved her onto her hands and knees.

"Not what I expected," said the shadow behind Rita. "Too bad for you, your mother was the only one to hear your condemnation. She will die knowing that _you_ killed her. This is what happens when you try to be the hero, young one. You lose those closest to you. Always. Now, say goodbye to your mother and your Ranger friend. Oh wait… you can't."

The shadow's laugh dissolved into the roar of the crowd as Rita announced that time was up. "She would not choose!" cried Rita. "The parents of her fellow Ranger, two of the lowest, most worthless human beings I have ever come across, or this perfect, beautiful little child! Family makes you weak! Family clouds your judgment! If the human race is to survive, we must eliminate… _family_."

"April," sobbed her mother. She rose to her knees and looked her daughter dead in the eyes. "It's okay. Everything will be okay. Find your sisters and save them. I love—" Goldar shoved her back down onto all fours.

Rita's shadow flickered away from her body. It swept along the floor of the stage until it touched the hand of April's mother. She screamed and tried to pull her hand away, but Goldar kept her down. The crowd gasped; to them, a tiny little girl wailed in terror at some unseen force. April tried to call to her mother, to run to her side, to do _something_, but Rita's spell tightened its grip on her blood. When she moved, all the blood in her body rocked against the sides of her veins. It was pain unlike anything she could possibly have imagined, like someone had ripped all her veins from her body and replaced them with fire. The pain would have blinded her, but she no longer saw with her eyes.

Instead, she was forced to witness her mother's death.

Rita's shadow crept up her mother's arm slowly, delicately, as though savoring the taste of her flesh. Where the shadow touched, her skin blackened as Will's had with the Void Weed. Tendrils of black smoke curled off her body. April's mother screamed herself into exhaustion, all the while held in place by the boot of a cackling Goldar. April could just hear Jess' voice over the din of the audience. The only voice she couldn't hear was her own. Soon the wind changed, and the smoke from her mother's flesh blew straight into April's face. She held her breath; Rita would not allow her to turn her head away.

After an eternity, the smoldering corpse fell onto its face and shattered in a cloud of ash. April's mother had come here to escape a husband who beat her. She had come to start a newer, happier life free of abuse. And now she was gone. The crowd gasped when the body broke apart.

"I am sorry," Rita said to the audience. "Zordon's power was indeed great. This evil spell was his last effort to undermine me. I cannot combat such overbearing hatred. He… would even sacrifice his own Rangers to exact revenge upon me."

The shadow crept toward Jess.

"This one will become my most powerful lieutenant," the shadow said to April. "You are a tricky one to corrupt, but this one…" The face in the shadow grinned, and the shadow increased its pace. "So full of fear. Oh how she wants to fight. I can _taste_ the anger in her…"

"April," said Jess. "Fight it. Whatever hold Rita has on you, fight it! Don't let this bitch win!"

"I already have," said the shadow. Jess turned to it with a look of shock.

_It wants her to know it's there_, thought April. _It wants to scare her even more._

"See how the crowd has turned against you?" the shadow said. "They are mine. You Americans are so simple; all it takes is the illusion of enslavement and the promise of freedom and you become like putty, ready to be molded in whatever way I see fit. In half a day I traveled from another planet and took this worthless city with nothing but what the Dark Dimension granted me. Now that I have my foothold, this country will be mine before the week's end."

"And then the world?" mocked April.

"Oh my dear girl," grinned the face in the darkness. "You think so small."

The shadow fell over Jess' hand, but no smoke rose. Jess watched the shadow halt with grim resolve. Rito stood over her, plainly shocked that the shadow did not affect her in the way it had April's mother. Rito's skeletal jaw hung slightly open, the bones in his brow shifting until it looked as though he had raised a questioning eyebrow.

"So it's true," said the shadow behind Rita. "There is still power within you Rangers. My touch should have burned right through her arm. Zordon chose better than last time, I'll give him that."

"Want me to lop her nasty little head off, sis?" asked Rito. Rita shushed him. She turned and smiled at the Rangers while her back was to the audience.

"This one has wreaked havoc on my army," she said, nodding at Jess. "What kind of leader would I be if I didn't return the favor?"

The shadow twisted on itself until a thin dark line shot up Jess' dislocated arm. She winced, grunting through gritted teeth as a deep gash of red followed the shadow's trail. Blood seeped out of the wound and boiled on her skin, but still she would not cry out.

"Your feeble minds could not comprehend the number of ways I imagined killing you," said Rita with a grin, her back still turned to the audience. As she watched the Rangers, the shadow spread out behind her, fanning out over the audience and distorting April's view of them. "Torture was always involved, of course. But what kind? Do I… boil your toes? Break your bones? Gouge your eyes out? Waterboard you? Close you in a room with my idiot brother for weeks on end?" Rita shuddered.

"In the end, though, the answer lay clear before me. You Rangers believe you have become a team. You five have been a thorn in my side all night. Now Zordon and that loudmouthed robot of his are dead, and your little leader has been claimed by the Dark Dimension. One by one, I am picking you apart." Sweat poured down Jess' face, though whether it was from the heat of the boiling blood on her arm or the strain of fighting back the urge to scream, April couldn't tell. "With no one left to protect you, you two are nothing more than weak little girls. How does it feel, knowing that all of your power depended on a man?"

Too late did April realize what Rita was doing. Jess leapt to her feet, toppling a surprised Rito behind her, and charged at Rita with her boiling arm cocked back and ready to throw the punch of a lifetime. Rita's words had gotten under Jess' skin as badly as her dark magic had. April tried to cry out to Jess, but Rita's spell kept her silent.

Jess threw a flailing punch that traveled straight through Rita, whose body darkened and shifted to mist for a moment before re-materializing behind the Ranger. Jess stumbled through, crying out from the pain of her dislocated shoulder. The audience roared its disapproval at Jess. One person near the front even tried to wrestle a gun away from one of the mudmen, presumably to shoot Jess and do Rita a favor. The mudman overpowered the man and knocked him to the ground. Squatt stepped out from behind April and stomped to the front of the stage to help the mudman deal with this new insubordination.

Jess took several unsteady steps managed to stay on her feet. Her arm continued to steam. Her face had turned as bright a red as the dye in her hair.

"You have lost the day," said Rita, as though the attack had never happened. "And now, you're mine. But we women must stick together, don't you think? I could make you my most powerful lieutenants, even more powerful than Goldar or my idiot skeleton of a brother."

"Hey!" said Rito. "I resent being called a skeleton!"

Goldar crossed his arms and spat a tiny fireball onto the stage. It burned through the wood and disappeared below. "At least that skull's an improvement over your old ugly face," he grumbled.

"Silence!" snarled Rita. She took a moment to regain herself. "Do you see what I have to live with? You must understand what it's like, competing in a man's world. We can change that. We can make this a _woman's_ world."

"Then you're wasting your time on her," April felt herself say, though they weren't her words. Rita turned April's body towards Jess. "Jess isn't a woman. She isn't anything."

For the first time on that stage, Jess looked truly hurt. She said nothing.

"You don't want her with us?" said Rita as innocently as possible.

"No," she said through April. "I don't want her hitting on me. Torture her all you like, then kill her."

_No!_ April screamed inside her own mind. _No no no no!_ Jess' whole countenance shut down. The rest of her slumped and hung loose like her arm.

"Your friend is so insecure," Rita's shadow said to April. "It's adorable. Target that insecurity, and she has no wellspring from which to draw her Courage. And you? Sow a little discord, and you'll crumble to dust just as your mother did."

_And what did the Dark Dimension do to turn you, Rita?_ thought April. If she couldn't speak, at least she could still think. _How easy was it to destroy you from the inside out and make you a slave? You were a hero once. What happened to _your_ family?_

Something almost resembling sorrow flashed over Rita's face, but then it was gone. "I _am_ the Dark Dimension," said the shadow. "Rita is as dead as – NGGGHHH!"

White flashed within the shadow's blood red eyes. Rita fell back, tripping over her black dress and nearly sending her backwards off the stage. Baboo leapt from somewhere behind April and caught her. Rita's shadow flickered and sent a ripple of white across the entire Square. The crowd grew confused, muddled. Some shook their heads and looked around as if seeing the Square for the first time. The mudmen that were scattered throughout the Square looked around, too, as if unsure how to corral the restless humans. All of them turned and looked to Rita for guidance.

In the front of the crowd, April noticed the man who had tried to wrestle a gun away from the mudman. Though he wore a hoodie to cover his face, April's strange new vision showed the hurricane within him. _Ewan_. In the growing confusion, he knocked a pair of people into the mudman, sending the mudman crashing into Squatt. When the two monsters jumped to their feet a moment later, the mudman's gun was missing. A single shot ripped from within the crowd, and the mudman crumpled to dust with a bullet hole through its head. Squatt roared, but a blast of wind knocked him over the stage and into a column of Town Hall behind them. When April looked back at the crowd, Ewan was gone.

April felt Rita's spell in her blood loosen its grip. "Jess!" she called, thrilled to hear her own voice again. "Rita was speaking through me! Don't—"

Pain scorched her insides as Rita regained control. "GOLDAR!" Rita screeched as she shoved Baboo away from her. "Return to the palace, and take them with you!" she pointed at Jess and April with her staff. "Squatt, Baboo, the Yellow Ranger is somewhere in the crowd. FIND HIM!"

"What's happening, mistress?" asked Goldar. He grabbed Jess, who stood motionless with a blank stare that sent an ache through April's heart. Rita's words – spoken through April – had broken her. She put up no fight as Goldar handed her off to a group of mudmen.

A fresh breeze ripped through the Square, accompanied by a curious rumbling sound. Everyone turned to the east, at the back of the Square. Something shifted in the sky. The black clouds swirled, looking as though they were fighting with each other, until suddenly they parted, and a brilliant shaft of white light blasted from the heavens and fell directly on the Square. Rita's shadow retreated from wherever the light touched. The crowd shook off Rita's spell, and one by one the people came to their senses. Mudmen panicked and tried to fire into the crowd, but the light intensified and heated the guns until the mudmen dropped them.

The rumbling grew louder and louder, practically demanding that everyone – human and mudman alike – stare in the direction of the shaft of light. Something fell through the clouds, riding the light towards the Square. April could hear Rita screaming for Goldar to take the Rangers, for Squatt and Baboo to hunt Ewan down and kill him, for Rito to just do _something_ useful, but even Goldar's iron grip on April's arm couldn't dampen her spirits. She knew what she was seeing, impossible though it seemed.

A lion made of pure white light leapt down the sun beams with such speed that it must have traveled over the entire city in the span of a few seconds. When it landed at the far end of the Square, its massive paws fell over both humans and mudmen, though only the latter were crushed beneath its weight. The lion stood several stories tall and more than a football field long, its tail flicking back and forth and its mane made of a light so bright that no one with normal vision could look directly at it. The lion's eyes glowed brightest of all, and standing behind them, within the lion's head, was the White Power Ranger, clad in new armor that shone just as brightly as the creature around it. When the White Ranger took a step forward, so too did the lion.

Goldar yanked April to her feet and threw her towards Jess. The two collided and fell onto the stage floor together. Goldar stood over them in a second, demanding that they stand up. "Get ready to feel what it's like to get pulled apart from the inside out," he cackled. "The Dark Dimension's teleportation has a bad habit of killing humans, heh heh heh…"

"Get off them!" Ewan leapt from the crowd and onto the stage – a distance of some twenty meters at least – and fired a volley of bullets at Goldar. The big monster shoulder-charged through the bullets, grabbed Ewan by his hoodie, punched him hard in the stomach, and flung him as hard as he could. Ewan's hoodie ripped, and he soared over the Square and crashed through the glass window of a nearby skyscraper several stories up. Squatt and Baboo tore through the crowd and disappeared into the building after him. Goldar dropped a chunk of yellow hood.

"GET THEM OUT OF HERE NOW!" screamed Rita. She was busy moving her staff in a strange pattern through the air, her eyes never leaving the enormous white lion that now strode slowly over the crowd. For the first time, April noticed another Ranger hanging from the lion's shoulder. This one was clad in armor made of green stone cut in the shape of scales, his helmet showing the face of a crocodile and his eyes glowing within the helmet with a green so electric that it hurt to look at them. From his right hand dangled a long two-handed hammer.

Goldar stepped back, holding April and Jess firmly by the shoulders. "If they die, it's not my fault!" said Goldar.

"That's my decision to make, not yours," said Rita. "Just teleport already!"

Goldar's grip tightened. April prepared herself for intense pain, but nothing happened. She heard Goldar grunt in surprise. "Mistress…" he said uncertainly.

Rita's shadow clung to her back, away from the light of the lion. "Curse him," Rita muttered. "Zordon… he's blocking me… CURSE HIM!"

Overhead, the black clouds were dissipating. Dawn had come at last.


	72. Episode 15 Ch 1 Epitome of Compromise

_Author's note (January 30, 2015): Hey all. First off, welcome to the new year! Second, I'm REALLY sorry for the big delay. Since the last chapter posted in December, I graduated, then the holidays, and then frantic studying for the entire month of January because I took my massive licensure exam this week (and passed, miraculously). And now I'll be moving very soon, so it may be a bit of extra time before the next chapter, but I promise that barring some freak accident (as usual), this will be the last major delay before this ridiculous fanfic closes out. Thanks for hanging in there. And now, back to the show._

Episode 15, Chapter 1 – Zordon

He stepped tentatively through the Command Center. Though the building still lay in ruins around him, Zordon picked his way through the rubble simply because he had not been able to do so in ten-thousand years.

_Can you feel it?_ Zordon thought.

_Feel what?_ thought Professor Cranston.

_Time_, thought Zordon. _I have not walked these halls in millennia. I have lacked a physical form since the dawn of your civilization. To move again – to feel – is almost overwhelming._

_ Oh. Um, happy to help._

While Zordon's new body walked through the Command Center, his mind forced its full attention to Cedar Grove. _Continue to repair our systems,_ thought Zordon. _I must ensure that Goldar does not take Jessica or April to Rita's palace._

_ I'm on it,_ thought Bill. Zordon's body turned to the computer consoles around it. He felt his essence shift as half of him – Bill's half – left the battle in the city and focused on the Command Center itself. It was a feeling beyond explanation, to have half of your body controlled by another. It unsettled Zordon, and he could feel it unsettle Bill as well. Yet this was the price they paid. Bill had sacrificed his humanity so that Zordon could return from the brink. Now they lived as two souls in one form, as the very epitome of compromise.

_I was not sure if this would work, _Zordon thought to himself. _In a way, we have become a more fitting expression of Wisdom._

_I'd say we're more like a partitioned hard drive,_ answered Bill. Zordon had temporarily forgotten that Bill could hear all of his thoughts, even those he thought he kept to himself. He had to remind himself that there was no "himself" anymore.

_We must continue to improve our communication skills,_ thought Zordon.

_That would be optimal._

With his attention turned to Central Square, Zordon gripped the air around Goldar and held it closed. The monster was trying to rip a hole in the fabric of space to carry him and the Red and Blue Rangers to Rita's palace, and while Zordon lacked the strength to prevent more portals, at least he could prevent this one. The White and Green Rangers had to rescue their comrades, and soon.

_Report,_ thought Zordon.

_Power at fifteen percent,_ answered Bill. _Most of our systems are still down, including communications. Progress is lethargic at best, with the White Lion Zord drawing so much of our energy. It may have been an error to let Will summon it so early._

_No. We surprised Rita, kept her from burrowing any further into Jessica's mind, but she will not remain idle for long. In our absence Rita's forces have grown far stronger. They sit just beyond our dimension, ready to be called into Cedar Grove in a moment's notice. The Rangers need all the firepower they can muster, and they need it now. Divert as much power as you can to the remaining zords so that the Lion does not stand alone for long._

_Working on it. I've also gone over our schematics for a Dark Dimension jammer, but it will take some time to create a working prototype, especially with the Command Center in such a state._

_We walk a delicate path, Professor. Would that we had Alpha 5 here._ Both aspects of Zordon mourned the loss of the robot. Between Bill's fresh, newly-met perspective and Zordon's countless years of having no other companion, the loss was indeed a hard one. They agreed to teleport Alpha's remains back to the Command Center as soon as they could spare the time, but both halves were far too focused on other matters to even accomplish that much at the moment.

_Yeah,_ agreed Bill. _He and I had developed the new Ranger suits before… you know… and those suits look like they may just do the job._

_ The job will depend on the youngsters inside the suits._

_ They're pretty incredible, aren't they?_

Zordon's mind flashed back to a lone woman smiling up at his tank in the Command Center. His heart sank. So many mistakes for which he had to atone. He felt Bill's surprise at the memory, and he knew Bill felt his sorrow. _They are… everything I wished Rita had been._

The White Lion Zord stomped through Central Square, burning Rita's Putties to dust and providing light and hope alike to all the humans gathered there. Gone was Rita's enchantment over the people of Cedar Grove. The light of the Lion had scattered her spell. The Dark Dimension had tried to manipulate from the shadows – subtly, beyond perception – but the Rangers had forced it into the open. Its next move would be swift and deadly. Will continued the zord's push forward, with Jack hanging from its shoulder. Yet Zordon knew that the two of them would not be enough. They needed the other Rangers.

Then, Rita regained herself, and she began her counterattack.

_Professor, _thought Zordon quickly,_ let us try something… unorthodox. I ask that you control our body and continue repairs, while I take full control of our mind and do what I can to battle the Dark Dimension._

Zordon felt Bill's amusement. _I feel like a student again. Give me the mindless tasks? I am amenable to this. After tonight, I believe my mind could use a break._

Zordon tried to conceal his nerves. They were entering unfamiliar territory now. _Let us hope this works, _he thought before he could help himself.

_ That's the spirit,_ thought Bill. _So, which zord should I power up next? The Green Crocodile?_

_ No,_ thought Zordon. _Jack's battle will lead him elsewhere. Focus your – our – energies on the Blue Halcyon._


	73. Episode 15 Ch 2 Battle of Cedar Grove

Episode 15, Chapter 2 – Jack

His suit kept him calm. At least, he assumed it was the suit. There was no other explanation for how Jack wasn't totally freaking out right now. He had never been a fan of heights. He had supposed that this was why his Ranger power granted him control over rock. Yet now he hung several stories in the air, from a machine made of light controlled only by a college-age pre-med student. Every surviving citizen of Cedar Grove stood below them, surrounded by mantis-like mudmen with assault rifles trained directly on Jack.

Worst of all, Ewan was nowhere to be found, and April and Jess stood as hostages on the stage with Rita and Goldar… along with Jack's parents. As Jack's eyes met with hers, Rita raised her staff and grinned.

_Looks like Rita's over our little surprise_, thought Jack.

_Time to end this,_ thought Will.

The mudmen below them dropped their rifles one by one as focused light heated up the metal. As they lost their guns, the mudmen extended pairs of thin, insect-like wings. They crouched, ready to leap into the air and stop the advancing Rangers.

The White Lion pressed forward. "Rita Repulsa!" said Will, his voice magnified by his zord's power. "We are the Power Rangers, Guardians of this planet and all that you threaten! You will return our friends to us, take your forces, and leave our planet! This doesn't have to end in violence!"

As if the humans below weren't already running, now must of them broke into full-on sprints to leave the Square. Others tried to pick up the mudmen's dropped guns as they ran past, but Will's light had superheated all of the guns to such a degree that the people only burned their hands.

Instead, the citizens of Cedar Grove streamed towards the alleys and roads that would take them out of the Square. Several mudmen leapt to block the exits.

But Rita held up a hand.

"Let them go," she said, clearly amused. "They are almost as worthless as these pathetic teenagers Zordon chose to try to stop me." Uncertainly, the mudmen stepped aside, and citizens began to flee the Square in droves. Jack and Will glanced at each other, uncertain thoughts streaming between their minds. Then Rita laughed. "Putties! I said you may let them go… but only if they can get past you."

The mudmen near the exits snarled and leapt into the groups of terrified citizens. They grabbed people, shoved them back. A few mudmen landed killing blows before Jack or Will could react. Jack watched, horror-struck, as a mudman landed between a young woman and an alley, grabbed her with its two lower arms, and pulled her torso off her waist with its two upper arms.

"We have to help them!" Jack shouted.

_We have to save the girls first_, thought Will, _and find Ewan. We can't do this alone. That's our priority._

Jack forced his attention away from the mudmen blocking exits from the Square. _How can we call ourselves Guardians of this city?_ he wondered.

_We have to make the hard choices,_ answered Will. _We're the only ones who can. You ready?_

_We're already wasting time,_ thought Jack. He leapt from the Lion's shoulder. In mid-air, he raised tombs of rock around as many mudmen as he could. _I have to get to the girls,_ he thought. _But that doesn't mean I can't help people along the way._ He pulled jagged spikes of rock from the sides of buildings that pierced the heads of mudmen blocking alleys. They fell to dust, and humans ducked under the spikes to finally escape this nightmare Square.

Jack landed in the Square. Immediately, he manipulated the rock below so that it catapulted him high into the air, leaving a small angled pillar where he had stood a moment ago. If all went well, Jack would soon land near the stage. He could see Goldar hauling Jess and April down the stairs and towards a gap between buildings. Jack didn't know why Goldar didn't just teleport away, but he also knew when to not ask questions.

When he glanced back at the stage itself, Rito and his parents were missing. Rita stood alone, swinging her staff around in a rhythmic pattern. _I have a bad feeling about this_, Jack thought.

The Lion charged forward and almost immediately slammed headfirst into a patch of black that had formed in the sky. Jack felt Will's surprise, and he felt, through Will's suit, a hard, metal surface pushing its way out of the darkness. A dark mass pushed its way into existence in front of the White Lion. It was long, and sleek. Cannons lined its deck, each one manned by several mudmen who stood dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of the machine.

"You brought your heavy artillery," Rita sang from the stage. "Now I bring mine."

The battleship's cannons opened fire on the Lion. It roared and stood back on its hind legs, swiping away the cannon fire with its front paws. When it roared, it sent a blast of pure light ripping across the Square, but the battleship took to the skies and dodged the shot with surprising agility.

Jack forced himself to focus ahead of him as he soared through the air, but now more battleships fell through black portals and opened fire on the Lion, on him, on the Square below. Blasts sent body parts flying in all directions, and more than a few shells narrowly missed Jack. He watched a ship directly in front of him as it took aim. The mudmen on the deck pointed right at him. The cannon swiveled, fired.

A massive shell rocketed straight at him as he soared over the ship. Instinctively, he swung his hammer, and the head connected with the shell. The shot deflected to the side and continued on a new path straight into the side of the first battleship that had come through. Jack had little time to celebrate, however; in deflecting the shot, physics had altered his leap's path so that he now fell straight towards the ship that had fired upon him. He landed hard on its deck and rolled to help break his fall. He came out of the roll surrounded by an entire ship's worth of mudmen. Their insect carapaces glinted in the morning light. Their faces glowed with the inner fire so characteristic of Rita's nasty minions. As Jack crouched, and more ships of different shapes and sizes poured into the air around him, he analyzed the situation.

This ship looked fairly modern. World War II battleship of some kind, perhaps. To his left, a portal opened and an eighteenth-century man o' war sailed into the skies with black sails and a crew of mudmen. Jack hoped that at least one of them wore an eyepatch. He dared a glance around. Every ship in the sky was of a human design, but with Dark Dimension modifications.

_Ghosts of wars past,_ he mused as he stood up, holding his hammer before him in a defensive stance. Dozens of mudmen crowded the deck of his ship. He was fully surrounded. _Rita wages war on humans with their own nightmares. No, Jack. You're distracting yourself. Focus! You have to get off this ship and get to Goldar._ He felt his ship begin to rise. A beam of light ripped through the air. The dark man o' war exploded into golden dust. Jack wanted to ask Will for help, but Will was already helping: he dealt with Rita's entire armada alone, while Jack had to only deal with this one ship.

_Strength, Jack,_ he told himself_. Strength isn't just doing things by yourself. It's about trusting your friends to do what they need to._

The mudmen before him parted, and a particularly scarred mudman strode through the crowd to face him. The left side of his face was sliced with deep, old wounds, the fire in those eyes dimmed, but there was no mistaking from his countenance that this was the ship's captain. It barked something at Jack, but his suit's many powers did not include language interpretation.

"Sorry," said Jack, "I don't have time for you. But you know what kind of time I've got? HAMMER TIME!" He swung his hammer straight down and into the metal deck. He felt the metal crack, and he used his powers to take hold of the crack and rip it wide open. The ship broke apart below him. He fell through the deck, along with most of the mudmen.

But as Jack fell through, he forced the metal back together above him, pinching mudmen in half, closing the barrels of the deck cannons, collapsing hallways, everything he could think of doing. He entered open air and was surprised at how high up he was. He had felt the ship ascending while he stood on the deck, but he didn't realize that it had climbed quite so high. The Square stood far below him, and the dizzying height terrified him, so he turned over in the air and watched the battleship above as he fell back-first.

The ship lurched to the side as smoke billowed heavily from its deck. A few mudmen tried to fly away, but Jack reached into the metal of the deck and pulled it outward, sending a dozen thin spikes out to impale any mudmen who tried to escape. He reached with his mind and felt the deck cannons. He turned them all until they pointed at the ship and let them open fire on each other. Those with barrels that he had closed simply exploded, but all the others began ripping holes in the ship until one lucky shot found the munitions bay. The ship exploded in a mighty ball of fire and golden dust that propelled Jack straight down towards the Square at an alarming rate.

Jack tumbled over himself for what felt like an eternity until his suit helped right his fall. It turned him so that he faced down like a skydiver, which he supposed he now was. _But without a parachute,_ he thought bitterly. As the Square rose up to meet him, though, another dark ship intercepted his path. He reached forward with his mind. This ship was an old Spanish galleon, mostly made of wood, but still with metal cannons. He ripped the cannons from the mudmen's grasps and fired shots into the captain's cabin, the masts, the pilot's wheel. Flecks of black wood littered the air, but still the ship did not go down. Jack turned his body into a dive and held his hammer out before him, praying that this actually worked. Splatting on the deck of an ancient ghost ship was not how he preferred to die.

He exploded straight through the ship like a bullet, his suit mitigating any damage he would have otherwise suffered. Jack blasted out of the ship's belly in a shower of golden dust, now just a few hundred feet above the Square.

He tried to calm his nerves. Though war still raged all around him, he and Will weren't faring as poorly as he had expected. _Jumping across the Square was a bad idea,_ he thought. _I am the Ranger of stone._ He thought of the crocodile, the animal which represented the Green Ranger's Strength. He thought of how the reptiles stayed just below the surface of the water before striking at their prey. _I must be like the crocodile._

In all the confusion, Jack had lost track of Goldar and the girls. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. Jack continued his headfirst dive straight towards the ground. _I really hope this works,_ he thought. One hundred feet, fifty feet, ten feet. He hit the ground… and kept going. Suddenly he understood what Ewan and April must have felt like in their diving competitions. The earth simply swallowed him up and let him pass into it like it was water. He could feel the vibrations of the war raging above. He felt the light, rapid footsteps of humans running, the angered stomps of the mudmen. He felt a behemoth of a creature crashing through a nearby building as well as an agile little thing scaling the building's exterior. _That must be Squatt and Baboo, but what are they doing?_ Even as Jack tracked them, they reached a high floor of a nearby skyscraper, where something exploded and sent them both flying out into the Square below.

He felt heavy footsteps dragging two struggling people behind it. _Goldar,_ he thought. Jack manipulated the rock around him so that it pushed him towards Goldar, though he stayed below the surface the whole time. Jack felt Will get hit by another volley of cannon fire, and he felt the rumble overhead as several shots missed the Lion and crashed into the Square, killing several humans who were still trying to flee to safety. _They need cover or they'll all die,_ thought Jack. _Will, I have an idea. I need some of your light._

_ You… what?_

Jack shared his idea through pictures instead of words. Will quickly understood and prepared to fire a light blast at Jack's command.

Jack stopped his odd swim under the Square and concentrated on every detail around him. For this to work, he had to understand the difference between mudman and human, predator and prey. He also had to make sure he didn't destroy any part of the city by accident or bring a building down on top of those he was trying to save. He forced himself to ignore the Lion's battle raging directly above him, though the sound was almost deafening.

Pushing his Ranger abilities to the limit, he manipulated the ground below every human he could sense in the Square and dropped them into pockets below the surface. He closed the holes after each human fell through, just as he had done with the battleship in the air, to prevent mudmen from coming down after them. In the new darkness, Jack created a makeshift maze of interconnecting tunnels. Here and there he allowed small air holes to open to the Square so that people didn't suffocate.

_Now,_ Jack thought to Will.

The White Lion fired a volley of light into the ground, where Jack had woven rich veins of crystal that led through all of his new tunnels. Will's light bounced through the crystal and stayed there, lighting the tunnels like exit lights in an airplane. The light streams would lead Cedar Grove's civilians to safety, or at least Jack hoped they would. At the edges of his powers, he tilted the tunnels upward so that they led into buildings, quiet alleys, anywhere he felt no dark presence. With the tunnels completed, Jack slumped, exhausted.

_That looked so weird,_ thought Will. He shared what he had seen from the surface: hundreds of terrified humans screaming as small holes in the ground swallowed them up, leaving dozens of mudmen alone and scratching their heads.

Jack tried not to laugh. _Just clearing the way,_ he thought. _You don't have to hold back anymore._

_ Nice going. I lost sight of Goldar though._

Jack turned himself in the rock. It was a feeling he was sure he would never get used to. _I feel them,_ he thought.

Diving lower so that he didn't disturb the tunnels he had just made, Jack propelled himself through rock and dirt. He could feel the vibrations of conversations in the tunnels as survivors struggled to make sense of what had just happened to them. He was thankful for Will's light; it gave off a warmth that ran deeper than just literally providing a way to see in the darkness. Jack could hear people saying that they trusted it and that it just _felt_ right. If Jack had been alone, he'd have only dropped these people into pitch black. _This is why Zordon created so many Rangers_, he thought. _Our powers help strengthen each other._

On the surface, Jack could feel Goldar dragging the girls down a back alley. The girls put up quite the fight, but without their powers Jack knew that there was no way they'd be able to escape. _Perhaps being that close to Rita's forces is preventing them from transforming_, he thought. _Or maybe they're gagged and can't say their word? I wish we could contact Zordon; he'd know why the girls haven't summoned their powers._

Jack prepared to break through the surface and stop Goldar. The monster wasn't alone; a small escort of mudmen traveled with him. They wouldn't be a match for the new Green Ranger, even if the tunnel stunt had left him drained of much of his power. Jack thought back to the lake cliffs, when Rita had first appeared and Goldar had almost killed them all. Zordon's medical intervention had saved Jack's life after Goldar had punched his face in.

Now, it was time to return the favor.

Jack threw his hammer out of the ground ahead of him. It slammed into a mudman's face and ricocheted away. Jack himself leapt from the ground, caught the hammer, and brought it down on top of another mudman. In one swift move he spun, reached to his hip, drew his pistol, and fired three quick shots. Two mudmen went down, but the third had only suffered a glancing blow. It charged at Jack, who tried to pull up a rocky spike but didn't have enough power. He dodged one, two, three clawed punches, leapt over the mudman, grabbed it by the wings, and pulled. The wings came off with a _crunch!_ as though he had just stomped on a roach. The mudman swung an arm backwards blindly, but Jack ducked under, dropped the wings, grabbed the arm, and pulled the mudman back and down. It fell sideways onto Jack's rising knee. There was another sickening _crunch_ as the mudman broke in half and dissolved to dust, leaving only…

"We-he-hell!" cried Rito, "the Whack-a-mole Ranger!" He held up the humans he dragged behind him. Jack's parents were covered in mud and blood, but they were still alive. "Here to save your parents, huh? I wish I knew my parents." He grinned as wide as his skeletal face would allow. "We'd share one hell of a family resemblance _now_! Heh heh heh!"

It had all been a trick. From high above, Jack heard the familiar cackle of Goldar and the low, rhythmic beating of his wings growing fainter and fainter. "Yeah,' continued Rito," Oldy Goldy figured you were coming, so off he went like the cute little flying monkey he is."

"Shut the fuck up and let us go!" shouted Jack's dad. He always did have a way with words. "And you!" Dad turned to Jack, "stop gawking and help! That's what you're supposed to do, innit it? Kill this asshole!"

"You tell him, hon," said Jack's mom. It was her go-to line when she would rather keep Dad's anger pointed in some direction other than her own. She used it constantly.

"See, this is how I know my sister hates me," said Rito. "I have to babysit the shitheads who make me look like God-damned Gandhi."

Jack's mind raced. The girls were more important to the mission, of course, but these were his parents. Could he really just abandon them? Rotten as they were, Jack was a Power Ranger, and these were people who needed him.

Hints of a song began to play under Jack's thoughts. He ignored it, unsure of why it was even there. "C'mon, Greeny," Rito was saying, "unmask and show these fine citizens who you really are. Heh heh!"

The song's volume slowly increased. Jack made to leap onto a nearby building to pursue Goldar, but soon he recognized the song, and he knew that it wasn't his mind that was singing it, but another.

_"Here I am,"_ sang the Scorpions, _"Rock you like a hurricane!"_ As the guitar began to shred, a yellow blur ripped through the air, headed straight for Goldar.

_Gotcha covered, Jack!_ thought Ewan. _I'll get Goldar and the girls, you take care of Skeletor!_

_So that was the explosion of wind in that building earlier,_ Jack thought to himself. Then to Ewan he added, _Good to have you back, bud. Give Goldar hell for me._

_ For you, for the girls, for my mom; it's a hell of a list, but I think I might just find the time to address each item in turn._

_ Ewan?_ thought Will. _Where the hell did you come from?_

_ Squatt threw me into a skyscraper,_ Ewan answered cheerfully. _As I picked glass out of my face, I felt my Power return. Is Zordon alive or something?_

_ Long story,_ thought Will. _Fill you in later._

_ Too long; didn't read. Got it. I'll go kill Goldar and save the girls now. By the way, kickass ride, Will._

Rito groaned as the Yellow Ranger flew overhead, propelled by nothing but wind. "I thought we took care of that guy…" Rito muttered.

Jack made the most of the distraction. Two jets of rock rose from the asphalt and sliced Rito's hands clean off his wrists. Jack's parents dropped forward, Rito's bony hands still clinging to their hair. They both cried out, pulled the hands away, and tossed them aside before scurrying over to Jack.

"Took you long enough," said Dad, his protruding belly brushing roughly against Jack's suit as he turned to glare at Rito. "What the fuck kind of Guardian are you? This whole night that bitch has had her way with the city, and you don't show up until it's convenient. Vigilantism is illegal, you know. I should turn you in to the police. In fact, I'd probably be regarded as a hero – AAH!"

Two small pits opened up under Jack's parents. They fell into the tunnels below. Jack closed the pits after them and added their little tunnels to his wider network. It was more power than he had. He slumped forward, his vision clouding. Opposite him, Rito crawled around the dark alley. He bent low, picked up one of his hands in his teeth, and jammed it against his wrist.

"I'd have let them die," he grinned as he screwed his hand back on. He repeated the process with his other hand just a short distance away. Then he climbed roughly to his feet and looked at his arms. Blackened flesh pulled itself his wrists until the arms looked good as new. Rito reached back and pulled his fiery sword from the scabbard on his back. "That much evil in a human?" He shuddered, his skeletal teeth clicking together. "The Dark Dimension ain't got nothin' on those two, yo."

Jack steadied himself with his hammer. "What can I say? I'm a saint."

_I couldn't even bear to talk to them or tell them it's me. No, it's better that they think I'm dead._

"I've never been much for saints," said Rito. He circled around Jack, who did the same despite the close quarters of the alley. "But I've always had a soft spot for martyrs!" Rito leapt.


	74. Episode 15 Ch 3 Flight

Episode 15, Chapter 3 – April

The city spun and bounced below her with every beat of Goldar's wings. He held her under one arm, and Jess the other, but there was no use in April trying to fight back. The spell that Rita had woven into the cut across her face still had a hold on her. She had nearly shaken it off when they were on the stage, but as soon as Goldar had touched her…

_He is part of the Dark Dimension, _she thought,_ so he shares her power. If I can just get free…_ Seeing the other Rangers had brought fresh life to her spirits. They could fight back again. They weren't beaten. But Rita had stepped up her game, and Will and Jack stood no chance alone. It would take all five Rangers, and perhaps a miracle or two.

The first miracle would be getting Jess out of her funk.

She hadn't said a word since Rita had used April to verbally attack her. Jess wasn't fighting Goldar's grasp. She wasn't yelling obscenities. Rita needed a complicated spell to keep April in check; Jess had only required words, humanity's oldest form of magic.

Rita's spell hadn't been able to stop April's unique vision, though. She still saw the world through the mystical lens which Zordon had provided her when she had entered the Dark Dimension. She saw the demon lying under the surface of Goldar's golden armor. She saw the blaze of light battling the darkness in the Square behind her. She saw her own self, a growing swell of ocean tide, preparing to break. And she saw Jess, a flame so dim it was almost impossible to see next to the fiery might of Goldar.

_Jess,_ April thought. She knew her thought had traveled beyond her own mind. Her Ranger powers were back, though she couldn't transform while Goldar held her. At her name, Jess' inner spark retreated deeper into herself. _Jess,_ April tried again, _I know you can hear me. Please, you must know that what I said wasn't me. Rita forced me to say those words._

_Get out of my head,_ Jess thought.

April couldn't help but be encouraged. Some reaction was better than nothing at all. _Jess, you know I don't think you're anything less than amazing. What Rita made me say was horrible. She wanted to undo you by making me say the worst thing she could think to say to you._

_The worst thing Rita could think to have you say to me?_ Jess thought. Even in her mind's voice, the bitterness was unmistakable. _Please. It's not the first time I've heard it. You understand? Rita's worst – that I'm "not a woman" or that I'll "always hit on you" if we're friends – it's still not as bad as what I've heard out in the real world. I knew what Rita was doing. I knew that wasn't really you talking. That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is that the worst the Dark Dimension could throw my way was not as bad as what I've already seen. It made me think: do I really want to save this world? Why save people when they hate me for what I am?_

_Zordon –_ April began, but Jess cut her off.

_Zordon wanted us to believe that Rita' some being of pure evil, but she's not. She's just like the rest of us. Given the opportunity… I'm not sure I'd do any different than what she's doing now. That's what terrifies me._

Jess said no more. Her mind retreated back into itself. April was stunned to silence. She wished that she knew Jess better. She was reminded again that, of the five Rangers, she was the newcomer, the only one who didn't know everyone else before tonight. She tried to think to Jack, but she felt Goldar's darkness push itself onto the thought, prevent it from going more than just a few dozen feet away. Without being in her Ranger form, there was no way her thoughts could reach all the way to the Green Ranger far below them.

Unbidden, some rock and roll song began to play in her mind. She didn't know the tune, but she knew the mind from which it was playing. Goldar spun in the air, the angles of his armor digging roughly into April's ribs. The Yellow Ranger rocketed through the air after them, his helmet a beautiful play of golden feathers and his feet pushing pure air behind him. At the sight of him, Goldar laughed.

"Squatt and Baboo couldn't finish the job, eh?" he said. "Fucking losers."

Goldar twisted again and resumed his flight out of the city. Almost immediately they heard Ewan yell something behind them; Goldar laughed and dove down towards the buildings below. April's stomach lurched as Goldar fell in a spiral, pulled up, clipped the roof of a 7-11 with his clawed feet, sailed through a back alley, turned, and turned again into a larger street. This area looked like it had once been a well-to-do suburb. Now, though, there wasn't a salon or luxury car dealership that wasn't completely in ruins. Goldar led the chase through a smoke cloud, spun, and kicked a fireball out of his foot and back through the cloud to surprise the advancing Ranger. April shared her vision with Ewan, praying that her thought would reach that far. Ewan dodged in just the nick of time.

_Well hey there!_ he thought cheerfully. _Thanks for the help. Now why don't you and Jess transform and stick that trident of yours up Goldar's pussy for me?_

April explained more in feelings than words. She shared her impressions of the events of the Square, including the part where Goldar had grabbed Ewan and thrown him into a nearby skyscraper. This she shared with a lingering feeling of confusion, as if to say "how in the hell did you survive that?"

She could feel the amusement in his response. He showed her his tumble through the air and a sudden burst of pressurized air from his palms just before he hit the window. The shattered glass still cut him up pretty good, but he had survived. As he sat in some abandoned office space and collected himself, he could sense that Zordon was still alive. Then he saw the White Lion zord out the window, and he knew that the fight wasn't over. From there, it had just been a matter of feeling Jack's pursuit of Goldar, and voila! Here they were.

April was impressed by Ewan's change of mood. Hardly an hour ago he had almost been as down as Jess was now. Perhaps he, like April, had realized that there would be time for mourning later.

Ewan quickly gained ground on Goldar, who was much slower in the air thanks to the extra weight of the girls. April felt Ewan's desire to fire an arrow right between Goldar's wings, but of course he wouldn't dare such a thing and risk hitting one of the Rangers. He and April tried to tease out a plan, but with neither of the girls able to help, they weren't sure how to approach this rescue. The slightest misstep could result in any number of bad outcomes.

It didn't help that Ewan's flight was draining his power, and quickly. He tried to hide it, but the pursuit was using up what little energy his suit had. April suspected that, though Zordon lived, he was not up to full strength, and so neither were the Rangers. Rita had stacked the odds so heavily in her favor that one may have wondered why the Rangers even bothered to try.

Ewan put on an extra burst of speed and flew closer. Soon, he could almost reach out and grab Goldar. In response, the monster began kicking fireballs blindly behind him, forcing Ewan to dodge and spin through the air. Goldar stayed low to the ground, narrowly missing burned out cars and floating corpses as he went. The streets were still flooded from the heavy rain. April tried to reach into the water and move it, but without her Ranger's suit she could do little.

"Your friend is spirited, I'll give him that," said Goldar. He banked around a McDonald's sign, arched into a huge pillar of smoke rising from the husk of the restaurant, and shot straight up, flapping hard to gain altitude while staying inside the smoke. April felt Ewan's elation – the higher Goldar went, the more he entered Ewan's element, so to speak – but then Goldar laughed again. "Rita wants all of you, but she only needs one alive. Instead of trying to out-fly him, let's see him deal with… this!" Goldar raised his arms. April felt gravity shift as Goldar continued to rise and the girls did not.

She and Jess were in freefall.

April's first thought was that of freedom. Out of Goldar's grasp, she was her own woman again, free of the Dark Dimension. She bent her limbs experimentally, and they responded. She suspected that Rita hadn't told Goldar everything about how the spell worked. _Good._

Ewan surged forward, and April could feel his intention: _catch both girls._ He was fast enough… probably. He could do it, or so he hoped. After all, the extra burst of speed put even _more_ strain on his limited power. He started for April, but as she tumbled, she could see the street below.

And it was flooded with water.

_Catch her first!_ she thought to Ewan. _Don't worry about me._

Ewan didn't even hesitate. His course altered towards Jess. _He's so different from yesterday,_ April thought, remembering how he had ignored orders and gone off on his own in the police station.

April righted her fall with the expertise of a seasoned diver. The street rose to meet her. She'd hit in seconds. Behind her, Ewan caught Jess and started to pull up.

"_Harmony_!" April cried. At the same time, a fireball blasted Ewan in the back. He dropped Jess just as April disappeared into the floodwaters.

April screamed, releasing a flurry of bubbles as she began to transform. The floodwater formed a whirlpool around her, swirling faster and faster as water clung to her body, hardened to ice, and formed her new armor. Her heart surged with blood that she could control at will. A helmet shimmered over her face and allowed her to breathe again. Clear visions from Will, Jack, and Ewan filtered into her own sight as one by one her suit's functions came fully online. With a final surge of power, she grabbed the water in the street all around her and flung it into the atmosphere where it belonged, leaving the street just as dry as it should be on a July morning.

She spun, looking in all directions. Ewan walked toward her, and arm reached behind him to feel where the fireball had hit his back. Smoke curled lightly from his suit.

"I had her," he groaned. "I fucking had her…"

April understood the words Ewan didn't say. Goldar had escaped, and he had taken Jess with him.


	75. Episode 15 Ch 4 Like Son, Like Father

Episode 15, Chapter 4 – Will

Had anyone asked, Will wasn't so sure that he'd be able to explain what it was like to pilot a Power Ranger zord. Exhilarating. Terrifying. Overwhelming. He had become a Lion eight stories tall. He had become light itself.

This wasn't a weapon he wielded. It was a weapon he _became_.

His suit translated his thoughts into his zord's actions. When he wanted to step forward, the Lion placed one huge paw in front of the other. When he saw a dark battleship push itself through a portal, he thought, "Shoot it down," and his zord let loose a blast of white light from its mouth with a mighty roar. Will was human, and Ranger, and Lion, all in one.

That didn't stop the pain, though.

Rita's forces had long since recovered from the surprise of the White Lion zord, and they were fighting back. Hard. Jack had removed all of the civilians from the Square, and Will had contained the fight as long as he could so that the people could flee through the tunnels, but now the ships blacked out the sky and spread across the city. Will wished that he could talk with Zordon, but he knew that Zordon and Professor Cranston were waiting on getting communications back up while they fought to restore power to the Rangers and their zords.

A volley of cannonballs punched along the Lion's back and drove its stomach into the dirt. Will felt each hit drum down his spine. The Lion leapt to its feet and charged forward to avoid a fresh volley. More ships circled overhead. They looked like they were trying to contain the Lion within the Square. Will knew that he had to get out. _I need light._

His mind reached towards the sunrise, beyond the ships. A solid beam tore a hole through the blanket of ships and landed at the Lion's feet. The zord leapt up the light like a housecat up a tree, sending blasts left and right as he raced eastward to the sun. Will called forth another beam, and another and another, bending them at different angles around him so that he stayed roughly near the Square. He began jumping between them as the ships launched their counterattack. He dodged, ever rising, but for every ship he shot down, three more tumbled through portals to take its place. This was a battle of numbers that he simply would not win.

While the Lion climbed, Will chanced a scan of the Square below. Rita had vanished in the confusion; Will could still sense the disruption in space where she had teleported away. _We forced her hand, but still she uses her minions to do her dirty work,_ Will thought. _We will have to make her truly desperate before she'll fight us herself._

The Lion's paw met open space where there should have been light. It tumbled over itself and began to fall, and in the confusion Will realized that Rita's ships had used their large numbers to block his beam by throwing themselves between him and the sun. He called down another sunbeam and landed with a jarring thud, but the Lion had hardly gone three steps before Rita's ships sacrificed themselves and eliminated it as well. The Lion leapt just as the light disappeared. It landed atop the deck of a ship, where Will paused to assess his next move. One particularly large battleship fired a railgun that would have ripped a hole straight through the zord. Will dodged, and the railgun punched a hole clean through the ship he stood upon, crumpling it to dust before he could jump again. Will was forced back to the ground, separated from the sun, his greatest source of strength.

But then the ships stopped firing. Will watched them uneasily. He fired a few light blasts and disintegrated a number of ships, but more poured through portals, their guns trained on the White Lion but their captains issuing no order. Clearly they were waiting on something. Or someone.

A shadow of something darker flashed among the ships. Will could never see it; the shadow danced at the edge of his vision, never appearing when he focused on where it had been. He could feel a dark presence and knew that something bad was coming, and he had a feeling that he knew what it was.

Then, the shadow revealed itself.

Even in the bright city lights, the Black Dragon zord was nothing but black, a huge patch of starless space cutting through the dark sky. Its eyes were little twin galaxies above a mouth that glowed purple with a dark fire that ached to blast the White Lion straight to hell.

The ships above remained fixed on the White Lion, though Will noticed a number of the mudmen aboard the ships eyeing the Black Dragon suspiciously, as though they still didn't trust this Ranger-turned-evil.

The Black Dragon glided down to land at the other end of the Square, several hundred meters away from the Lion. "Hello, son!" Master Tom said cheerfully through the zords' comlinks.

"Master, it doesn't have to be this way," answered Will. He hoped his voice wasn't shaking. He was afraid that it was, despite his best efforts.

"You're right!" The Black Dragon glanced upward, as if daring the Lion to do the same. "You have an entire civilization's worth of guns pointed right at your back. All I have to do is say the word, and your zord's gone. If you come with me, I can promise your safety."

He wasn't wrong, at least about the gun part. "As long as the Dark Dimension's controlling you," said Will, "you can't promise anything." Here and there, stray beams of sunlight drifted through the swarm of battleships and alighted on the Lion. It invigorated Will. Sunlight pulsed through his body, through the zord. It gave him strength and cleared his mind.

"I can promise that you'll die if I tell them to shoot."

Will scanned the ships above and noticed something interesting. He hoped that the scan wasn't wrong. He formed a thought, and the Lion began to charge up its power, quietly pulling what it could from street lights and the city's power grid.

"If I come with you," Will stalled, "then where would we go?"

"Rita's palace first, of course. The White Ranger may be incorruptible as far as the Dark Dimension is concerned, but I know what you'll do for _family_." Master Tom said the last word with such vicious glee that Will shuddered. "My Mistress is certain that she can convince you to join her side. In fact, she'd stake her life on it… and Jack's, and Ewan's, and Jess', and April's. Even mine. Everyone can live, if you give yourself up."

"Goldar already played that card. I traded him my Power Coin, and he gave me back Ewan's body but not his mind. It was a trick."

"And did you not also trick? You didn't need that Coin to transform. Do not talk to us about _tricks_, Will."

The Lion still needed to charge. Just a little longer. Just a few more moments of stalling.

All this talk of tricks reminded Will of a question that had nagged him. "Who is Kim?" The last time they had seen Master Tom face to face, he couldn't stop talking about someone named Kim and how the Rangers had beaten her senseless. It had to be an illusion of Rita's; Will certainly didn't remember beating up some innocent woman.

Sure enough, Will felt the shift in Tom's emotions: a flash of anger… and a flood of regret. "I said no tricks," Tom growled.

"Who is Kim?" Will repeated. Rita was manipulating Master Tom with this name. Whoever Kim was, she was the key to accessing whatever part of Master Tom that was still trapped inside the Black Ranger.

Tom was silent for a moment, and then he chuckled. "You know, it's funny that you should ask. After all, you were the one responsible for me losing her."

For a moment, Will forgot about the White Lion's power charging. "What are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Will! I had a life before you were forced on me. I had a plan! And then your parents went and got themselves killed, and suddenly I was stuck with you! That tournament that we had gone to that night: did you know that that was going to be my last one? I was _days_ away from moving. I had finally gotten up the nerve to chase the girl I've loved since fucking high school, and instead I have some snot-nosed loser of a kid dumped on me. You weren't the only one to lose something that night. I lost my _life_ because of you… but now Rita's going to help me get it back. When this is all over, Kim will be mine. I'll find her. I'll get back the life that you stole from me."

Despite himself, Will wondered if there was any truth in what Master Tom had said. Part of him suspected so; after all, the best lies always contained a bit of truth. He knew that Tom had sacrificed much to adopt him, that much was certainly true, but the man had never, in all these years, expressed the slightest bit of regret over what he had done. He had been a good, loving father, a perfect model of the kind of man Will wanted to be. Had he really kept such a secret from Will? It wasn't impossible.

But right now, it also didn't matter. The Lion had finished charging.

"You're right about one thing," said Will. "There's almost nothing I wouldn't do for family. Even this!"

Will let loose an explosion of light so powerful that, to anyone nearby, it may have looked like someone had nuked the middle of Cedar Grove. The Black Dragon screeched and covered itself with its wings, disappearing under the brilliance of the white blast. The explosion washed over the black ships above before a single one could fire a shot, and one by one they disintegrated to dust. Will's scan had been right: the ships had flown too close together – presumably to block Will from fleeing the Dragon – so now none of them had room to escape the explosion.

Will fell to one knee, and the Lion slumped forward on a leg that would no longer support it. His legs began to flicker even as morning light flooded back into the city, refracting quite beautifully in the golden dust shower that used to be the Dark Dimension armada. Not every ship had been destroyed, however, and even now more portals were opening.

But it was a start.

The Lion's legs buckled, and Will tumbled right out of the zord as it flickered and disappeared. The White Ranger fell headfirst into the Square, landing hard on his back and rolling painfully back up to his feet. His head swam; using that much power at once had taken a heavy toll. But his heart was glad: his power surge had destroyed only creatures of the Dark Dimension; the buildings around him looked none the worse for wear. Central Square stood peaceful and quiet, as though Will stood alone in that quiet hour before business men and women arrived for work.

The Black Dragon, he noticed with gnawing uncertainty, was nowhere to be seen.

Far outside of the Square, he felt Jack and Ewan in the same precarious positions. They had their Ranger powers back, but they were nowhere near full capacity, and they, too, had already overexerted themselves against their foes. Even as Will watched, Ewan caught Jess, dropped her as Goldar blasted him with fire, fell beneath the floodwaters, and reappeared to find a new Blue Ranger watching him limp towards her. April had transformed, but Goldar had teleported away with Jess. _Zordon had told me that he would prevent Goldar from teleporting, _Will recalled._ Why did he let him go?_

_The hell was that?_ Ewan thought to Will. _You okay, boss? Looked like you exploded._

_I did, but I'm fine,_ answered Will. _Good to have you back, April._

_ Good to be back,_ she thought.

_First the Void Weed, now this,_ thought Ewan. _Are you ever going to stop sacrificing yourself to take down a few stupid assholes?_

_No,_ Will answered with a grin. He turned and faced the rising sun, letting its warmth invigorate him. Now he understood how April felt in the rain, or Jess in a burning building: this was his element. They had fought in darkness all this time, but now, surrounded by light, he felt _powerful_.

_Ewan and I want to go after Jess,_ said April._ Goldar took her to Rita's palace._

_ I know,_ thought Will. He felt a thought come from Jack, who was losing his duel with Rito. The big monster performed a deft sweep up with his fire-sword that took Jack's hammer right out of his hands. _Do it, Jack,_ thought Will. Jack sent a thought of recognition and tried to calm his nerves. What Jack was about to do was hardly short of suicide. Rito would either capture him and take him to Rita's Palace… or kill him. _Ewan, April. Jack's going after Jess. I need you both in the air. These ships are too much for me._

_ My zord's not ready yet,_ thought Ewan.

_Mine is,_ thought April.

_Call it in and start wrecking the ships I didn't take down. Ewan, fly support for her, but be ready to jump to me in case Squatt and Baboo show up. Plus, a smaller target means bigger frustration for the mudmen._

_ One thing I've never been called is 'small,' if you know what I mean,_ thought Ewan._ But hell I'll go with it, just this once. What about you, boss?_

The Black Dragon zord slammed down in front of Will, sending shockwaves through the entire city. A light blazed from the top of the Dragon's head, and the Black Ranger stepped out. He leapt into the Square, landing lightly just feet away from Will. Tom removed his helmet. Will did the same.

_I'll be right here,_ thought Will.

"Oh that was good!" said Master Tom. "I didn't even notice that you were charging! You had me talking, and the street lights were dimming, and… well, you really are a tricky one, Will. For being the Ranger of Honor, you are one devious son of a bitch. By the way, love what you guys did with the new suits. Thanks for including me in the upgrade." Master Tom laughed as he tossed his shiny new helmet behind him. It fell into a shadow and disappeared.

"My Honor keeps me focused on what is good," said Will. "It's something I learned from the best man I ever met, but what would you know of him? There's nothing left in there but Dark Dimension. You're just a mindless puppet, a shell of a human filled with nothing but darkness and rage."

_Reverse psychology 101,_ thought Will. _Let's see if he corrects me… or agrees with me._

Tom grinned. "You know that's a lie," he said, to Will's secret relief. "She let me live. She gave me the Black Ranger powers and showed me the truth. Zordon has lorded over this planet for too long. It's past time humanity rose up against him and fought for themselves! Think about it! Rita is a human being, and she has lived for over _ten-thousand_ years. Now she fights against a member of the most advanced civilization in the universe, and she's winning! She is an inspiration. How could you not want to follow her?"

Will started to answer, but his Power had other ideas. His mind fell through time and space and landed in a memory of the old White Ranger.

The scene felt eerily similar to Cedar Grove. The entire village had burned to the ground. Smoke fluttered from a few hollowed-out husks that may have once been houses. A large pile of bodies burned at the far end of the street, which flowed with dark red blood that nearly rose above his ankles. A thin veneer of golden dust lay over the pool of blood, as though someone had tried to cover horror with beauty.

The White Ranger stood with his arms crossed, the other Rangers behind him. Rita huddled over a body, the hood of her Black Ranger suit pulled back to expose her face. An attractive young man was cradled in her arms. His chest was a massive dark stain of mottled blood.

"We had to," the White Ranger said. "Don't you understand? This was a tactical necessity."

"_Tactical necessity!?_" Rita blurted. Tears streamed from her yellow cat-eyes as she glared at the White Ranger. "His name was Dredwing, you heartless _machine_! He wasn't a tactical necessity, he…"

"Was your lover, yes I know." The White Ranger sounded almost bored, bureaucratic, like someone dealing with an insurance claim. "But the sacrifice of this village was necessary. Zordon's analysis was correct: the Dark Dimension corrupted the nearby wildlife, as we had suspected, and by letting this village be attacked, we were able to track and understand what we are dealing with. With the creatures distracted, we were able to flank them and kill them with relative ease. The deaths of these people prevented ours, Rita. Ours and thousands of others."

"You... no, we… used them as bait," said Rita.

"A noble sacrifice for the greater good," said the White Ranger.

"For the greater good…" The White Ranger saw the thoughts that came from Rita – her finding the body of Dredwing atop the nearby volcano, next to the slain dragon which the Yellow Ranger had shot down just moments before. He felt Rita's desire for a child with this man, and he saw Rita's argument with Zordon, who had forbade her from conceiving. _A Ranger cannot have familial ties,_ Zordon had said. _It makes her vulnerable to the enemy. This is why you must never even reveal that you are a Power Ranger. No one can know your secret, or they will use it to destroy you._ The White Ranger felt Rita's utter isolation. They had lived for centuries, after all. Their old families had all died or moved on without them, leaving them only each other for company. But the team had grown tired of each other. That many hundreds of years with five other humans, an interdimensional being, and a psychopathic robot were enough to drive anyone mad with desire for other company. Then Rita had found this brave warrior, had loved him, considered starting a new family with him…

But he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Zordon… wanted him dead," Rita whispered. "Because he got too close to me. Zordon engineered this. This was his doing."

There was no arguing with Rita when she was like this. The Dark Dimension had corrupted its prey for decades. The beasts were far too dangerous for the Rangers to attack without some kind of plan. They had to see the beasts in action, understand how they moved. Rita knew that as well as the others did, so why was she so upset? This village _had_ to be destroyed. Dredwing had simply been collateral damage.

The White Ranger saw Rita's thoughts, but he did not understand them. None of them did. In this one moment, Rita's isolation had become complete.

And suddenly, Will was himself again.

Jack, Ewan, and April had seen his vision. No one knew what to think.

"Look at that," said Master Tom, "no answer. C'mon, Will." He held out his hand. "Join us."

Will's mind raced with the memory of his vision and the conflicted thoughts of the other Rangers. Zordon's decision had led to Rita's downfall. She had found someone to love after centuries, and in an instant she had lost everything. Ewan recalled a vision of his own, where Serket, the old Yellow Ranger, had witnessed Rita raise Dredwing from the dead. His body became possessed by the dark energy of the dragon which had slain him, and Dredwing had become Goldar.

Rita had opened herself to the Dark Dimension for love, and it had consumed her. She had lost herself for the promise of a family. Now it all made sense.

Master Tom still held out his hand. Will grabbed it, and he used the touch to transfer all his thoughts – the vision, Rita's brokenness, Will's own love for his adopted father – over to the Black Ranger. Master Tom seized as his mind flooded with unwanted thoughts. He fought it, tried to push the thoughts back to Will, tried to pull his hand away, but the White Ranger had the element of surprise. Will pushed with all his might and held Tom's hand in an iron grip. Master Tom's mouth opened in a soundless scream, and he fell to his knees, panting. Will stepped back.

"Your master is broken," said Will. "Just as broken as all of us. But her anger is misguided. We can free her from the Dark Dimension, but we need your help."

Tom remained on his knees. Wisps of smoke curled from his glove where Will had touched him.

_As much as I like where you're going with this,_ thought Ewan, _I don't think we're going to win with sunshine and happy feelings._

_My power is sunshine,_ thought Will. _You saw what I saw, and you heard Rita's speech in the Square. She – no, the Dark Dimension – fears the idea of family. Rita loved someone else, and the loss of him broke her. The Dark Dimension isolated Rita and took control over her, and it's done the same to Master Tom. Rita and my master have made mistakes, but they aren't the enemies: the Dark Dimension is._

_I agree,_ thought April, _but how do we fight the Dark Dimension? Ewan and I were trapped there earlier. It's a place, not a thing. It'd be like… I don't know… fighting the Earth itself, like literally the planet._

_I don't know, _Will admitted. _There has to be some way…_

_Wise words from our fearless leader!_ Ewan said with feigned enthusiasm.

Slowly, Master Tom rose to his feet. His eyes were wild, unsure. "I…" he mumbled. He tripped and fell forward, then pulled himself up again. "I don't…" For a moment, he sounded like his old self. Then his voice caught in his throat as a shadow darted across the ground and disappeared under his feet. He arched his back, temporarily frozen in place, and then suddenly slumped forward. Will caught him on his shoulder and heard a soft chuckle close to his ear.

"Nice try," Tom said with a new, deeper voice that was neither his nor Rita's, "but I have other ways of keeping my slaves in line. This one, and Rita Repulsa, and all of those other fools will obey me until they die! And believe me: this one _will_ die."

Master Tom's arm bent behind him and pulled a black dagger from his shadow. He swiped, and Will only barely dodged backward in time. Master Tom's maniacal grin disappeared as his black helmet materialized over his face. "Quite the rush!" said Master Tom, his uncharacteristic bravado back in full swing. "Thank you for that stirring fantasy. Now back to business. Surrender, or die." Master Tom laughed. "Let's face it, buddy: sometimes the clichés really do sum it up the best! Oh and look! The news choppers are here to cover Rita's glorious rise to power."

As his own helmet shimmered onto his head once more, Will could see them fast approaching: a small armada of helicopters swarming towards them, ignoring the black ships that parted to let them pass. The nation's morning news was about to get the scoop of the millennia.


	76. Episode 15 Ch 5 The Morning News

Episode 15, Chapter 5 – Kim

"Welcome back as we continue our live coverage of the truly unbelievable events unfolding within Cedar Grove. The story first broke last night, when we received reports of a possible terrorist attack by an unknown force. Unfortunately, the attackers unleashed a continuous electrical magnetic pulse that prevented any of our news equipment from broadcasting within the city. Even the United States Army reported that no satellite could survey the area before suddenly going dark. But we here at CNN are proud to report that the EMP is no longer in effect, and our news choppers have now arrived on the scene. Please be warned: the images we are about to show are extremely graphic in nature."

Kimberly Hart had gotten up early, as she so often did, and was going through her usual routine of gymnastics stretches in her kitchen while her coffee brewed and the morning news aired.

She wasn't stretching anymore.

She had grown up in Cedar Grove – Angel Grove, as it had once been in her youth – and many of her old friends still lived there. Or did they? She'd fallen so out of touch with everyone that she wasn't sure anymore. Did _he_ still live there?

The news chopper beat a steady path over flooded streets and flaming buildings, giant fissures in the earth and great piles of dark shapes that Kim hoped were not corpses. On several rooftops were scattered other dark shapes that stalked back and forth, occasionally taking pot shots at the helicopter and its rivals from other news stations. "The devastation is incredible," the newscaster said with a somber tone. "It is almost as though the attackers – whoever they are – have learned a way to use the elements to their own advantage." The woman's voice cracked. "Who could do such a thing?"

As the news chopper neared Central Square, its camera focused on a pair of figures fighting in a nearby street. The hulking person was clearly winning; even as the chopper zoomed in on the action, the larger person knocked the smaller to the ground, sliced clean through the man's leg with a sword on fire, grabbed his shoulders, and quite suddenly erupted in flames. When the flames disappeared, both figures were gone, leaving only a dismembered foot in a green boot. Kim's jaw dropped at seeing such a thing on live television, but the reporter pressed on.

"So far, no terrorist groups have stepped forward to claim responsibility, though several have released videos of their leaders supporting this unprecedented attack on American soil. But while the motives of the attack remain unclear, many Americans see a different reason behind the attack."

The news feed cut briefly to a young man being interviewed on a street corner in who-knows-where. "It's obvious that God has sent his judgment!" said the young man. "God has punished the city for changing its name from _Angel_ Grove!" The feed returned to live footage of the city as the voices of other people echoed this sentiment.

Then the news chopper arrived over Central Square, and Kim gasped.

A huge black creature sat on one side of the Square, which was filled with bodies and covered in a strange golden dust. As the chopper moved across the open space, the creature turned a pair of alien eyes up toward the camera with irises jet black and pupils a starry white that ran in two small vertical slits like a cat's. Its expression was calm, almost bored. Two people, utterly dwarfed by the black creature, battled viciously in hand-to-hand combat nearby. They appeared evenly matched, their movements far too fast for Kim to keep track of. It reminded her of her friends' old martial arts tournaments, of Adam and Rocky and Jason and… These two even moved like _he_ did, though they wore strange suits of black and white.

"The President has declared a National state of emergency," the reporter continued. "If you have any friends or family in Cedar Grove, we ask that you do not try to contact them at this time. The Army has taken over all civilian frequencies to coordinate their counterattack as well as their evacuation of the city. At this point, we are still unsure who these attackers are, whether or not they have taken any hostages, or—"

The screen cut roughly to a beautiful face smiling pleasantly at the camera. Behind her sat a dimly-lit throne room, as though this woman was broadcasting from some unused movie set.

"Hello," said the woman. "So sorry to interrupt, but I didn't want your misguided news reporters to tell anything but the honest truth. My name is Rita Repulsa. I was born over ten-thousand years ago, right here on this very continent. I'm what you might call the "original" Native American." She chuckled. "Ten-thousand years ago, I was recruited by an interdimensional being named Zordon to protect this planet in his name, and for a time, that's what I did. I was little if not a good, obedient soldier.

Her smile disappeared, leaving a hardened face trying to hide the immense pain behind those yellow eyes. Most would have missed it, but Kim had grown to know that look. "But Zordon was not a gentle master," continued Rita. "He asked much of his recruits, and in the end, his twisted concepts of right and wrong caused the deaths of those I loved most. He would sacrifice anything – or anyone – for his own twisted sense of justice. So I rebelled, and in the end, he sacrificed every last one of his minions to lock me away. Now, I'm back. And I need your help."

Kim watched, entranced by this beautiful woman and the impossible tale she told. She claimed to be the terrorist leader. Her forces must be enormous to have destroyed so much of the city, so how could someone so certifiably crazy command such a following? Ten-thousand years old? That was impossible!

"I said I need your help," Rita said again. Her gaze shifted left, to where Kim happened to be standing, and for a wild moment Kim swore that their eyes locked. Rita smiled. "There you are," said Rita. She held her hand towards the camera. "Kimberly Hart, you will come with me." One by one her fingers came _through the screen_. Kim screamed.

But when Kim's neighbor charged through her front door a moment later, her spare key in his hand and the memory of that blood-curdling scream fresh on his mind, she was gone. Coffee boiled unused in its pot. The kitchen TV showed only static.


	77. Episode 16 Ch 1 Halcyon Days

Episode 16, Chapter 1 – Ewan

"Stand back. I have _no_ idea how this works."

"And yet you exude such confidence," said Ewan. "Really, it's inspiring. What's your secret? Pantene? Grass shots?"

The Blue Ranger cast him a sideways glance. "How can you be so cheerful after everything that's happened?"

"What? Watching my mother die, seeing my city destroyed, possibly losing all of my friends to an alien being of pure evil? Not all of us wallow in our sorrow; some of us laugh at it instead. The world's way too dark to be taken so seriously. It'd kill me, and frankly, I rather enjoy living, don't you?"

"But, after your mom…"

Ewan shrugged, preferring to forget the darkness he had slipped into after the Black Ranger slit his mother's throat and turned her into a mudman. "Do as I say, not as I do. Nobody's perfect, Ice Queen, not even me."

He tried not to beat himself up about losing Jess. Goldar had gotten the drop on him. He'd done all he could, and now her rescue was in Jack's hands. The Green Ranger had allowed himself to be captured by Rito. If Rito was as dumb as they thought he was, then Jack might just have a chance.

But in the meantime, the other Rangers were about to get very, very busy.

The Blue Ranger spread her arms as they stood in the empty street. Ewan marveled at the Ranger's new look, with her jagged helmet that looked like it had been formed from pure ice and her new, gloriously form-fitting suit of blue and white that sparkled with tiny crystals. It was like _Frozen_'s Elsa had suddenly become a Power Ranger.

"_Let it go, let it go_," sang Ewan.

"Shut up."

The floodwaters that April had thrown into the sky began to trickle down in a light rain that quickly became a downpour, though April stayed completely dry. Soon Ewan was drenched; he suspected that April could have kept him dry as well, and that this was her way of exacting vengeance upon him. The rain splashed into a fine mist that surrounded the Blue Ranger, slowly taking shape around her in a breathtaking show of natural beauty, like they stood at the base of some enormous waterfall. _National Geographic would kill for a shot of this,_ Ewan thought. He felt April's distracted amusement. _Well look at that: she does have a sense of humor!_

The mist lifted into the air, taking April with it. _The fuck is your zord, anyway?_ Ewan asked. _What creature did Zordon choose to represent water? A trout? Dolphin? You might not be all that effective if your zord just flops around. Ooooo are you a crab?_

The mist grew into a great cloud rising above the city until, at last, lightning erupted within, briefly revealing the shadow of a great bird. By the time the sound of thunder reached Ewan's ears, the zord had revealed itself.

A blue bird of water and ice shot out of the cloud and let forth a screech that drowned out the thunder. With each flap of its wings, it sent fresh branches of lightning flying in all directions. Its body was squat and fat, like a raindrop, but it had a lance of a beak that looked as though it were formed from pure, deadly ice. There was an elegance to its form that commanded Ewan's attention, much like the White Lion had.

_This feeling,_ thought April. Ewan had hardly heard anyone so giddy, let alone someone as serious as April. _It's… incredible!_ The bird spun in the air, diving experimentally and pulling back up into the clouds. Lightning trailed in the zord's wake. Snow drifted from its icy wings, disappearing before it ever touched ground.

_Woah there,_ thought Ewan. _Slow down, girl. How's a boy to keep up with… seriously, the fuck kind of bird is that? Osprey? Harrier? F-15? That's a bird, right?_

The sheer force of the weapon she now wielded overpowered her thoughts, as though she could not believe that one person could command such a thing. April's thoughts came in as though she was talking _past_ Ewan, not to him. _I am the Halcyon, Kingfisher of ancient Greek legend. It was said that the Halcyon signifies peace, tranquility, and… Harmony._

_ I can't imagine how that's relevant to you._

_ It is also said that the Halcyon calmed the wind itself and brought it safely back to Greece._

April, regaining herself and clearly amused, thought images of their shared time in the Dark Dimension, and how she helped break Ewan free of his prison there and return his mind to Earth. _Fuck,_ thought Ewan. _And here I was starting to think that the Powers had just chosen randomly. _He sighed. _ Guess I'll never find out how I look in blue._

_ Now I understand why you like flying so much. Well? C'mon, Airhead. Think you can keep up?_

Grumbling, Ewan channeled his power through his legs so that the wind lifted him into the air. _So many fart jokes,_ he thought. Thank God his twelve-year-old self couldn't see him now. He'd never hear the end of it.

Far ahead of him, the Blue Halcyon dove straight through a line of black ships, leaving a trail of lightning and golden dust in her wake. The zord twisted and fired a volley of ice shards upward into the belly of the ships above it, and one by one the shards exploded in showers of silver and gold. Storm clouds swarmed the ships, swallowed them up, and blasted them to hell with lightning.

There was no way Ewan would be able to keep up with the zord, so instead he scanned the city below to see what he could do to help. Will's light-nuke had wiped out practically all of the ships over downtown as well as the mudmen along the ground, but it had not reached Rita's forces in the suburbs and surrounding areas. April and Ewan would have to play mop up duty before these bastards swarmed inward to fill the power vacuum. He tried not to let exhaustion get the better of him. Flight took a lot out of him, but at this point he could either sleep later or die.

_Ewan,_ April thought a moment later. _Civilians._ She thought an image of one of those tunnel exits Jack had created, just on the outskirts of downtown. A group of mudmen approached the exit, clearly intent on venturing inside and wiping out whatever people they found.

_I'm on it,_ Ewan thought, and he shifted course. _Will, you still good?_

It took Will a moment to respond, which couldn't be a good sign. _Been better,_ he thought distractedly. _Keep close. There's still no sign of Squatt or Baboo._

_ You got it, boss._

None of the mudmen heard Ewan coming, and he didn't deem it necessary to inform them until a wind arrow ripped clean through the back of one mudman's head and into the chest of another. The mudmen spun in his direction just as Ewan's flying foot caught a mudman hard in its chest. Ewan channeled a blast of air through his foot that sent the mudman crashing through a nearby wall. The Ranger landed, bow in hand but too close to the mudmen to take another shot. Instead he swung the bow into a mudman's shoulder and knocked the monster aside. Ewan spun and slung the bow over the head of the mudman behind him. He yanked, and the invisible string of wind sliced through the mudman's carapace. Its head fell left, the rest of its body fell right.

A pincher knocked hard into Ewan's side. His suit just barely kept a rib from breaking as he stumbled to the side and fought to catch his breath. Ewan reached down, pulled his pistol from its holster, and tried to fire, but the mudman was too fast. It knocked Ewan's hand sideways, and the shot went wide right. Ewan used the momentum to perform a sort of left hook with the bow still in his other hand; when the weapon connected with the mudman's face, Ewan channeled wind through it, out the end and into the side of the mudman's face. Its head exploded in a shower of golden dust, but just as Ewan was about to celebrate his glorious victory, something rumbled behind him. He turned. Coming down the street at an alarming speed was a black tank, complete with an angry-looking mudman poking out the top hatch.

The mudman pointed at him and began clicking frantically to the others inside the tank. The main gun swiveled round until Ewan could see all the way down its barrel. Ewan's hand went to a pouch on his belt. He flung the pouch's contents, and a second later a thick yellow gel fell across the barrel's tip. _Go ahead,_ Ewan thought, _just try and shoot me. See how that tank handles some explosive gel._

But the mudman saw what had happened and clicked again. The gun powered down. Ewan swore. The mudman ducked into the tank and reappeared a second later with some small device in his hand. He pulled a pin and reached back to lob it straight at Ewan's face.

Ewan's suit reacted with reflexes faster than his own. He turned, planted his feet, aimed his wind bow, and fired a shot before the pin or device ever left the mudman's hand.

The arrow pierced the mudman's wrist, cutting the hand clean off and causing the device to fall into the tank. More frantic clicking and a mad scramble as several mudmen tried to squeeze out of the tank's top at the same time. There was a great flash and a deep rumble as the tank exploded from within, sending shards in all directions. Ewan dodged around the chunks of metal with relative ease. It was the second tank he had taken down that day, only this time he was smart enough not to be inside when it happened.

Satisfied, Ewan kept his bow out as he flew away from the tunnel exit.

He came to a landing on a rooftop and tried to catch his breath. His new suit was more powerful, yes, but Rita's new mudmen were _much_ stronger. Taking down such a small force had consumed far more energy than he had expected. From this height, he could feel a breeze ripple across the city. "Maybe I can… use that to recharge a little…" His vision dipped in and out, but as he turned towards the breeze he felt his strength returning, even if it was a bit more slowly than he would have liked.

Below, he could hear civilians trickling out of the tunnel.

"Did you see that?" a man asked. "That guy literally flew in and wiped those mantis-things out! And a tank! Took down a tank _by himself!"_

"Must be one of those Power Ranger guys," said another.

"You say that like you actually have some idea what's going on."

"And you do? That lady in the Square said she's ten-thousand years old, man! She's outta her fuckin' mind! Then that lion thing shows up and literally steps right on top of me and it doesn't hurt, and then like naval cruisers and old sailing ships and shit start comin' out of portals and bombing everything… The fuck, man? What is all this? We're caught up in the middle of something none of us understand. My best friend just died because of something we don't understand! THE FUCK!?"

Hey, hey," said another voice. "Calm down. We've all lost someone tonight. Let's just get out of town and let the army or these Power Ranger things or whatever deal with it."

"Whatever, man. My house is this way. My dog's probably scared shitless."

"Can't be any worse than you when we got dropped into the tunnel."

"I don't like closed spaces, alright!?"

"Hey!" came a new voice. Ewan glanced down at the street. Some guy with one of the Professor's freeze guns was running towards them. "Come this way! I'll help lead you out of the city!"

"Justin?" said the first voice. "Shit man, are you a sight for sore eyes! Is that a… gun?"

Their voices shrank as the group followed Justin down a back alley. Ewan slumped down against the roof's railing, only barely paying attention to the Blue Halcyon slinging ice and storm into the dark fleet above. Ewan broadcasted the memory of what he had just seen to the other Rangers. _Let's not forget what we're fighting for,_ he thought. _It's so easy to focus on the enemy ahead of us that we can forget the innocent behind us._

Ewan felt the other Rangers agree. Will was about to respond when Master Tom's dagger slipped past his defenses and cut deep. Will fell backwards and felt his side. His hand was covered in blood. When he looked back up, the Black Ranger stood flanked by Squatt and Baboo.

Will didn't even have to think the command: Ewan took to the sky and used his full power to reach Central Square as quickly as possible, making sure to pick off mudmen snipers on rooftops as he raced by. _Never a dull moment,_ thought Ewan.

_Uh, guys?_ thought April. _We've got more problems._

Ewan glanced right, where the Blue Halcyon weaved through the clouds. A trio of black ships had come together in an odd formation. Ewan's helmet enhanced his vision; there, on the prow of one of the ships, stood Rita. She laughed viciously and struck the ship's deck with her staff before teleporting away.

Darkness swirled around the three ships. They drifted closer and closer together until they touched. They began to bleed into each other, to shift and take on a new, unified shape that was grotesque to behold, as if someone had modeled a battleship on what would happen if someone lived inside a nuclear reactor. The new ship was a hulking mass of black that stuck out at odd angles, with every inch of its surface lined with far more guns than that of the three original ships put together.

Ewan slowed his flight, unsure of which ally to help. Thankfully, April answered for him. _Help Will,_ she thought. _I got this._

_Always telling me to help other people,_ Ewan thought cheerfully. _Sometime, my darling, you should allow yourself to play the damsel in distress._

Ewan resumed his course, praying that he would reach Will before the Black Ranger killed him or, worse, took him to Rita's palace.


	78. Episode 16 Ch 2 The Distressed Damsel

Episode 16, Chapter 2 – Jess

Teleporting had gotten the first true response from Jess since Rita made April say the things she had said in Central Square. It was like getting yanked across the universe by a string tied around your stomach, and landing was even worse. Jess vomited all over Goldar's beautiful golden armor, winning herself a gloved backhand that knocked her to the floor, where she promptly vomited some more.

"I told you teleportation could be unpleasant, heh heh heh…" Goldar said. He picked her up and flung her into a dark, tiny room. She landed roughly on her side and slid across a cold steel floor. "Don't worry; we'll be bringing company for you soon." He laughed again as he slammed the door shut, leaving that damned cackle echoing through the halls.

Jess didn't know how long she sat in the darkness. She thought of nothing in particular, saw nothing, heard nothing. She simply sat inside herself as Rita's words played over and over again in April's voice, in Rita's, in those of each and every person in her past who had said the same thing but were at least a little more normal than a ten-thousand-year-old supervillain.

_Jess isn't a woman. She isn't anything. I don't want her hitting on me. Torture her all you like, then kill her._ Pain flared in her right arm, where Rita's shadow had cut deeply and boiled her blood as it ran down her skin. Her chest was sore from Goldar flying with her, and her face throbbed from his backhand. But none of it mattered. If she retreated far enough inside herself, she barely felt any of it. _Jess isn't a woman. She isn't anything. Jess isn't a woman. She isn't anything._ She felt the familiar return of fear – not for her life, but that Rita's words were true. She hated that feeling more than anything, but the more she tried to fight it, the stronger it became.

Footsteps. The creak of metal on metal as the cell door opened. Goldar's silhouette in the door as he tossed someone else in. The body landed with a light thump and the quiet cry of a woman. Goldar slammed the door shut, returning the cell to total darkness.

Jess felt a shaking hand touch her leg. Her new roommate cried out and jumped back. "Hello?" the woman asked. For a moment, Jess had been afraid that the person Goldar had thrown into the cell was April, but that definitely was not April's voice. "Hello?" the woman asked again. "Are you… okay?"

Jess had no inclination to talk, but she also didn't want this woman to think that she was locked in with a corpse and start freaking out. Her own fear was bad enough; she didn't want to have to deal with someone else's. "Hi," said Jess. Her voice was raspier than she had expected. It sounded like it usually did when she had been crying.

"H-hi," said the woman, clearly relieved. "What's your name?" Jess didn't respond. "I'm Kim." This woman sounded hopelessly sweet, and sweet was exactly the last type of person Jess cared to talk to right now. "Do you know what's going on?" Jess remained silent. "Are you from Cedar Grove? That monster said the city was close by, and I saw what had happened to it on the news…"

"Lady, what do you want? Shut up and stop asking questions."

"I just want to know what's going on. I'm… well… I'm terrified."

_At least she can admit it._

"You think talking to me will help you not be scared?"

"Yes. We can draw courage from each other."

Jess groaned. She was done with courage.

"So how did you end up in here?" Kim asked.

_She's not going to stop asking questions._

"A flying monkey brought me."

"Flying monkeys, women coming through TV screens… It just seems like one impossible thing after another."

"Lady, you have no idea."

"Have you been in the city all night?"

"All my fucking life. Now shut up and leave me alone."

The more she talked, the _nicer_ the woman's voice became. It was annoying. "You sound so young. It's alright to be angry. It's alright to be scared. You've been put into a terrible situation. Maybe you lost your friends, or your parents, or…"

"My parents are still alive, those fuckers."

"You aren't close with them?"

"I'm not here for therapy. My parents are a couple of fuckhats, my brother'll die soon if he hasn't already, and I don't have any fucking friends."

_I'm alone, and it's better that way. No one to disappoint._

"I'm sorry you don't get along with your parents." This Kim person still spoke with such cloying sincerity, as if she understood what Jess was going through. She reminded Jess of April. The pain flared through her arm again, and her heart fluttered with fear. "I can't pretend to understand what you're going through. But as long as you're alive, there's always something you can do to make things better."

"You must've lived some fucking perfect life then."

Kim hesitated. "I've had some great joys in my life, it's true. And I've had my heartaches. I'm not able to have kids. My husband thought he didn't want kids anyway, but over the years he changed his mind. He divorced me last year and started dating a girl nearly half his age. It turned my life upside-down. For a while, I was angry like you are now, and that's okay. I didn't hide my emotions, but I didn't brood on them, either. I allowed myself to feel them and let them out."

"Good for you," said Jess, though, despite herself, she was no longer as agitated with Kim as she wanted to be.

"I worked through my anger and realized that I wasn't angry at all, not really. I was scared of what I'd do with my life. I was scared of being alone forever. Once I realized that, I was able to work through my fear instead of trying to fight against it. When you hold your emotions back, they fester inside you, whether they're good or bad. My best friend in high school, she had this way of telling when I was hiding something, and she'd always take me aside and say, 'Kim, let it out. Allow yourself to feel or you'll go numb.' I… should have listened to her more."

"Sounds like a damn saint."

"She was." Kim's voice caught in her throat. "Trini… really was. So, I say to you now: let it out. Allow yourself to feel, or you'll go numb."

Jess' wounds hit her with fresh pain. She tried to ignore it. She didn't want to take this woman's advice. But since she was stuck with Kim, and Kim was so God-damned persistent and kind, she may as well get it over with and listen to her. Jess felt the pain – really felt it, tracked it as it ran up her arm, through her shoulder, into her chest. The pain made her angry – no, not angry: terrified. Memories lashed out at her with each wave of pain. Rejection. Humiliation. Loneliness.

_Let it out. Allow yourself to feel, or you'll go numb._

Her heart raced. She wanted to stop. It was uncomfortable; surely it was easier to leave these emotions alone and continue on through life as she had. But that hadn't worked, had it? She had pushed people away, people she truly cared about, all for the sake of avoiding these fears. It was how she had lived her life. It was why she thought her _Courage_ was even more cruelly ironic than Jack's _Strength_.

Something clicked in Jess' mind, though she couldn't yet put it to words. She turned to Kim to try to explain how she felt, but suddenly the cell door opened. Light flooded around a large shadow with a grinning face that glowed from within.

"You've received a royal summons," said Goldar. "My Queen wishes to meet you."

"Fuck off," said Jess. "Tell Rita I'm not coming."

Goldar laughed. "Not you. Her." He stomped towards Kim. In the light, Jess saw her for the first time: middle-aged but youthful, gorgeous but… sorrowful. Kim shrank away from Goldar, but she didn't scream. Briefly, their eyes met. Then the door slammed shut. She was gone.

Jess embraced the pain running through her. She leapt to her feet and slammed her burned fist against the wall. She screamed and slammed her fist again. _There'll always be assholes!_ she thought, punching the wall again on the last word. _There'll always be cunts_, she slammed her fist,_ and fucktards, _slam! _and worthless pieces of shit, _slam!_ and if I can't handle that, then I'm no better than any of them!_ She slammed her fist one last time. Immediately, it was as though she had struck a match, with her hand as the match head. Red fire burned along her arm, and as it moved, she felt her pain ease and her fear lessen. She opened her fist and closed it, noting with surprise that the flames didn't burn her. The fire stopped at her shoulder, and slowly, she felt her mind clear.

_Rita had placed a spell on me,_ she thought, then, _no. I did that to myself. I was too afraid to face up to what she said. She knew what could set me off. She knew what could fucking shut me down._

"Hmph," she grunted, "looks like that backfired."

Just then, she heard commotion outside. A gruff voice – Goldar? No, Rito.

"We hope you'll enjoy your stay in Rita Repulsa's Prison of Eternal Darkness, TM! The name's trademarked, you see. Can't have other Rita Repulsa's Prison of Eternal Darknesses popping up around the world and cutting into our business model, can we? Wouldn't be good for our bottom line and… hey, stop screaming. You only lost one leg; I lost all my skin! But did I cry about it? Well, yeah okay I did, bad example, but still! It's annoying!"

Jess knew the screaming voice. _Jack._

Fear hit her like a truck, but this time she let herself experience it. It made her jittery. The flames on her arm intensified. She had to keep from panicking. Her fear told her what was important to her life, and that, unequivocally, was her brother.

Instinct took over. She turned and punched towards the cell door across the room. To her surprise, a dark red fireball spun off her arm and crashed against the door. She punched again, and another fireball hit the door with impressive force, though the door did not budge.

"The hell was that?" said Rito. "Sounded like your mom when she gets out of bed. Ha!" Jess heard Rito's stomping get closer and closer.

Then the dumb brute opened her cell door.

Rito stood in the doorway, wiping blood off his sword and staring at Jess with comical surprise. Jess slung a red fireball off her arm and caught Rito dead in the face, knocking him back into the hall. She leapt after him, eager to hit him with as much force as she could possibly muster. Rito landed on his back and rolled smoothly onto his feet.

"Whoa!" he cried. "How'd you—"

"_COURAGE!_" Jess didn't even wait for her transformation to finish. As her suit blazed onto her body, she reached forward with her arm that burned with red fire. She closed her fist and yanked upward, her mind catching hold of the fire around Rito's sword and lifting it – and him – into the air.

"Hey!" Rito shouted. "Cut that out! Heh heh, get it? Cut out? Because it's, you know, a swor—"

Jess flung her arm sideways, sending Rito and his sword crashing hard into the wall at the far end of the hallway.

Her heart sank as she saw Rito's prize lying still in the middle of the hall. Jess sprinted and slid onto her knees by her brother's side. His left leg bled furiously from a stump just below his knee. The rest of the leg was nowhere to be seen.

"Jess!" panted Jack. "I'm… here to rescue you…" He tried to sit up, but his hand slipped in his own blood and he fell hard on his elbow.

"Fucking idiot," said Jess, though she couldn't hide the affection in her voice. "This is going to hurt." She grabbed the stump of his leg with her right arm, which continued to burn with red fire even though she was now covered by her Ranger suit. Jack cried out as fire seeped from Jess' hand and across his severed leg.

"Cauter…izing…" he groaned. "Clever…"

"Sure, that. Now hold fucking still!" In truth, she was just following her suit's instincts. She knew nothing about how to heal someone or mend a wound, but she felt like this was the right thing to do. She poured more fire over the wound, burning the flesh closed so that it would stop bleeding. There was no question that Jack would have died quickly without Jess there.

"Hey!" said Rito as he hauled himself roughly out of the crater he had made in the wall. "You're not supposed to be out… are you? Cool arm! Haha! Cool, get it?"

Jess stood. "Yeah. Now get this!"

She shoved forward and sent a jet of red flame that engulfed the entire hall. Rito had nowhere to dodge; instead, he threw his arms over his face and disappeared within flames of his own. Jess lowered her arm.

_I could barely move that arm after what Rita did to it. My Power must be fighting the shadow that cut me._

Jess knelt beside Jack. "Couldn't beat that stupid Bonerhead, could you?" she asked.

"I… let Rito win," said Jack. "Thought he'd… take me to you. Wasn't expecting the leg, though. How did you…"

Jess showed him her arm. "I'm not sure."

_Rita burned your arm with dark fire,_ thought Zordon. _She sought to humiliate you by using your power against you, but instead she created a focus for it. Your arm will never again function as a normal arm would, but in some ways it is now considerably stronger. You have turned your weakness into a strength._

_ Hey Zordon,_ thought Jack. _Good to hear your voice again. Communications are back up?_

_ We have done all we can on this end to charge your zords. I had been using a great deal of my power to prevent Goldar from teleporting with you, Jess, but in the end I had to take a terrible gamble: in holding Goldar in the city, I was preventing the zords from fully charging. I allowed him to take you so that your zords would be fully functional when needed. I am sorry for making such a choice, but I hope you can understand._

Jess wouldn't admit it, but being brought to the prison had allowed her to meet Kim, and Kim had brought her back from the brink of her own cowardice. She decided to skip to more important matters. _Mind telling us what's going on? _asked Jess._ Where the fuck are we?_

_You two are inside Rita's prison, which lies just outside of her palace. I was unsure such a facility existed until now; I believe that she constructed this place soon after arriving last night as a holding pen of sorts. But we are fortunate: had they taken either of you to the palace itself, we would not be able to break through its defenses and communicate with you, nor would we be able to send you this._

A large object shimmered into existence nearby.

_Is that…_ thought Jack.

_We had to make some adjustments to our Dark Dimension jammer,_ thought Professor Cranston. _We thought we could create a device that would block Rita from contacting the Dark Dimension from this dimension, but after your encounter with the Void Weed, we better understood the nature of what we were dealing with. Simple frequency-jamming wasn't going to do the trick. We had to do something a little more drastic. However, we couldn't make all the changes we needed to in the time we were allowed. I can guide you through the rest of the alterations, but it will take some time._

_ So to answer your question, Jack,_ thought Zordon, _yes, that is a bomb… of sorts. You must set it off as quickly as possible. You will have to be swift: Rito will likely return with reinforcements. But be warned: as soon as you begin to arm this bomb, I cannot hide its power from the enemy. Rita will do anything in her power to stop you._

_ And how the fuck can we pull this off when Jack's missing half his fucking leg?_ thought Jess, but Jack held up a hand to stop her.

"It's alright," he said, still struggling to talk through his pain. "Your arm… gave me an idea. Stand back, would you?"

Jess rose to her feet and stepped back. Jack placed both hands over his severed leg. The prison floor began to shake. Jess braced herself against the wall and watched, spellbound, as the wall behind them broke. Dirt and moss and stone rolled over each other and into the hallway, connecting to Jack's knee until, at last, Jack propped himself up onto a leg made of stone. He tested it, hopped around on it, and it balanced him as well as any real foot would.

Jess stomped across the hall and pulled Jack into a tight hug.

She felt his surprise, then felt his arms tighten around her. Even though they were twins, and even though they had always cared for each other, neither of them ever showed much affection. Now, though, Jess let her full thoughts flow from her mind and into his, and he did the same. She would isolate herself no longer; she realized now that she never had to, so long as he was around. Surprisingly, she felt the same thoughts from him. She'd never known how much he had struggled with the same dangerous thoughts, but there they were.

Sister and brother shared more in common than just their genes. Courage from Strength, and Strength from Courage – neither Ranger thought it in such concrete terms, but at last both understood why the Powers had chosen twins. In many ways, it was impossible to think of one without the other.

"We can pull this off," said Jess.

"Damn right we can," said Jack.


	79. Episode 16 Ch 3 Full Circle

Episode 16, Chapter 3 – April

The first volley of cannon fire pushed April's piloting skills to its limit. She dodged, rolled, blasted a few projectiles out of the sky with ice and lightning. Several shots wandered dangerously close to the news choppers that now swarmed Central Square, and it was only April's intervention that saved them. But she knew that Rita's strange new super-ship was testing her, and its next attack would not miss its real target: the Halcyon.

_Any other zords ready?_ she thought.

_Zordon's done all the charging he can,_ thought Will. _The rest is up to us._

_Well I don't know what it's supposed to feel like,_ thought Ewan,_ but right now I'm pretty sure I couldn't create a Prius, much less a zord._

_ You're close, even if it doesn't feel like it,_ thought Will. _You're probably feeling a little weak, and I think that's because so much of your power is going to your zord._

_It's not often that I have performance issues._

Will chose to ignore the remark, which seemed to be a running theme between the two of them. _Your power should finish charging soon, but you need to hold off. The fewer zords out at a time, the faster the others can finish charging up. I'm sorry April, but you'll have to keep that thing busy for a while longer._

April had suspected as much. _Divers always have to be flexible, right Ewan?_

_ Will, do you hear that?_ thought Ewan. _She's making jokes! I'm finally rubbing off on her!_ As a response, Will shared his vision with the others. Squatt and Baboo leered at him from either side of the Black Ranger. Will's suit was doing what it could to mend his wound, but if Ewan didn't reach him soon then a little cut would be the least of his worries. _Oh, right,_ thought Ewan. _Save you first. Joke later._

The Blue Halcyon turned and whipped its wing at the super-ship. Feathers of ice slung from the zord, spinning into deadly needles as they flew. The super-ship didn't even try to dodge out of the way. The ice shards struck its hull and shattered harmlessly. April reached into the atmosphere around her and pulled several branches of lightning into her enemy, but again the ship deflected the attack with hardly a scratch. Its guns swiveled to and fro as the Blue Halcyon dove through the skies, half trained on the zord and half on the news choppers while the gun crews reloaded for the next attack.

April could feel Rita's power behind the first volley; she had enchanted the ship's guns just as she had with the mudmen's assault rifles. April shuddered, recalling the bullet that had torn through her thigh in the police station. _I'd rather not get shot again, thank you._ The guns continued to follow her flight path. They were almost done reloading. _Let's see if they can hit something they can't see._

April mixed humidity with heat from the fires and watched a thick cloud form around the dark ship. Because hers was the zord of water, she could see straight through the cloud as if it wasn't even there. Mudmen scrambled madly about the ship's deck. Several pointed their guns in different directions, clearly unsure as to where the zord was now. April released another blast of lightning from her zord, this time targeting the mudmen.

But shadows leapt up from the deck and blocked the mudmen from her attacks. Several of the guns spun in the direction of the lightning and fired.

This time, April didn't have time to dodge.

Cannonballs and large-caliber shells ripped into the Halcyon. Those that didn't explode on impact simply kept going, punching holes straight through the zord's chest and wings. April felt each and every hit as though it was her own body. She began to tumble through the air, her cry of pain becoming a bird-like screech that rang from the Halcyon's mouth and echoed throughout the city as a peel of thunder. Some unfortunate office building broke her fall, crumbling into a million pieces under the weight of the massive zord.

_April!_ thought Ewan. _Are you okay?_

April struggled to get the zord back on its feet. She hoped that there hadn't been any civilians hiding in the building. _I'm alright,_ she thought. In the police station, she had only been shot once. Just now had been several dozen shots, each single one hurting as badly as the one hours earlier. She focused her suit's display to show her what Ewan and Will saw. The Yellow Ranger had arrived in the Square and had given Will just enough time to close his wound before the Black Ranger had redoubled his assault, pushing Will back while Ewan struggled to take on both Squatt and Baboo at the same time.

_Even with new powers,_ April thought to herself, _we're still losing. We have to push harder!_

With several massive beats of its wings, the Blue Halcyon returned to the skies. The black ship had cleared itself from April's cloud, and now reinforcements were portaling in on either side. The Halcyon called down lightning through the reinforcements, and a moment later it dove upwards, beak-first, through the bottom of another ship.

And yet more ships appeared. _This is neverending._

April felt surprise and pain from Ewan and Will. She returned to their visions and gasped: the Black Ranger had called his Dragon into action. It pinned Ewan under a massive paw while the Black Ranger crouched over Will, a dagger to his throat. Squatt and Baboo stood on either side of the Dragon's paw, waiting for the Black Ranger's signal to dispatch Ewan once and for all. April would never get there in time to help.

As one, the Black Ranger, Squatt, and Baboo froze and looked west. The ships around April turned and fled, utterly abandoning the fight. The Black Ranger leapt from Will, landed in his zord, and took to the skies to follow the ships west, barely giving Squatt and Baboo enough time to leap onto the zord's legs and hang on for dear life.

_The fuck?_ thought Ewan.

_Jack's started arming the Dark Dimension disrupter,_ thought Jess._ That might be what's pissed them off._

_As I live and breathe!_ thought Ewan. _You just saved our asses, Firecrotch!_

_But you're about to have company,_ thought Will. _Lots of it. April?_

_The ships are headed to Rita's palace,_ April confirmed. _Every one. And it looks like… yes, nearly every mudman is flying out that way, too. They're emptying the city to come stop you two._

_Great,_ thought Jess.

_At least this validates that the disrupter should do some real damage,_ thought Jack. _Otherwise they wouldn't be so hot and bothered about it._

_So, party at Rita's?_ thought Ewan.

_We'd better crash it before everyone else gets there,_ thought Will.

Ewan broke into uncontrollable laughter. _Sorry!_ he thought. _Sorry, just… hee hee! Can you imagine Rita doing kegstands…_

The Blue Halcyon turned and dove towards the Square. _Ewan, Will,_ April thought. _Jump as high as you can._

Two tiny figures soared over the skyline, well past the news choppers still covering the strange scene. April altered the zord's dive, slowed down, extended her wings.

Will caught on to her right wing, and Ewan her left. _Hang on tight,_ April thought to her two passengers. She glanced at the streets below just in time to see the paramedic Jason blast a mudman to bits with his freeze gun. _We're leaving the city to you now_, she thought to him_._ Jason looked up at the passing zord. He waved with his gun and nodded, as though he had heard her. April focused westward and pushed the Halcyon as fast as it would go. Ewan manipulated the wind around the zord to increase its speed even further.

_So it's back to the lake,_ thought Will. _Where this all began._

_Back to the lake,_ agreed April,_ where all of this will end._


	80. Episode 16 Ch 4 Prison Break

Episode 16, Chapter 4 – Jess

April's report was anything but reassuring, and neither was Jack's. Since Zordon and Professor Cranston had not quite been able to finish the disrupter, it left Jack kneeling over some intricate wirework that was way beyond Jess' comprehension. Jack would be no help when the fight came. And it would come.

Jess felt rather embarrassed about her sudden burst of emotion towards her brother. They never hugged. It simply was not done, even though they had shared a womb for nine months and a room until fucking puberty. Maybe that kind of constant exposure had numbed them to each other. _Let it out. Allow yourself to feel, or you'll go numb._

After events like those of the past few hours, Jess didn't think she'd ever take her twin for granted for the rest of her life… however long that might be. Experiencing her fears instead of shoving them aside had shown her what was most important to her, and the love she had felt for Jack and the other Rangers was so great – and so unexpected – that she was pretty sure she might have even hugged _Ewan_ if he had been there.

_Jessica,_ thought Zordon. _I am updating your map of the prison and surrounding area._ A sort of three-dimensional blueprint filled her vision. Rita's prison was a squat brick of a place, hidden close to her palace under a blanket of rock that anyone would easily mistake as just part of the landscape. A small cave served as its entrance. The prison itself was three floors of cells, built downwards so that the top floor – where Jack and Jess now stood – was the closest to the surface. The top floor was mostly abandoned, but the lower two…

_Zordon,_ thought Jess, _what are these other dots?_

_Human captives,_ said Zordon. _Rita's purpose for them remains unclear to me. I had hoped that you would have enough time to free them, but Rita's forces are advancing quickly._ To highlight this, Zordon altered the map to show the outside of the prison. Hundreds of mudmen raced across the dry lakebed from Rita's palace, and the Black Ranger, with Squatt and Baboo in tow, was advancing rapidly from the city to the east. The small host of mudmen in charge of running the prison, meanwhile, was amassing in the floor just below Jess. They would reach her in mere seconds.

But not if she took the fight to them.

_I'm sick of playing catchup to Rita's schemes,_ thought Jess.

She expected Zordon to correct her, or tell her "no" or say that she was somehow foolish for wanting to make sure that Rita would enslave no one. _Be swift, _he said.

_Hurry back, would you?_ thought Jack as he hunched over the machine, his torso half-buried in wires.

_Just try not to blow us up,_ thought Jess.

She leapt past Jack, reaching the hard metal staircase in two bounds. The stairs had a bend in the middle, so that the bottom sat directly under where Jess stood now. Mudmen were already coming up the bottom steps. Jess threw a fireball straight down into the first mudman and herself into the second. Her boot crunched down into the mudman's head and continued on through the monster's ashes. She landed at the base of the staircase to find a long, straight hallway with cells lining either side and dozens of mudmen advancing towards her. She could feel her power coursing through her right arm. The mudmen paused, eying the arm with obvious unease.

At the far end of the hallway, a mudman threw a human headfirst into a cell and slammed the door behind him. "Want someone to pick on?" taunted Jess. "Try me!"

The closest mudman punched at her face. She dodged to the side, caught the arm, and thrust her elbow up. The monster's arm splintered with a sickening crunch, and the mudman fell away, screaming in its strange, high-pitched clicking tongue while its arm dangled at an unnatural angle. Jess leapt over it to kick the next victim in the chest, but the mudman caught her foot and twisted. As it did, Jess hopped off her other foot and landed a roundhouse kick to the mudman's face.

Four mudmen charged at once. She slung a fireball at the nearest one. As it slammed into the mudman's chest and burst into flames, she lunged forward, reached into the fire, and grabbed the hilt of her sword. She extinguished the fire before removing the sword, so that now the blade found itself buried deep within the chest of the mudman. She shoved, stabbing the mudman behind the one she'd impaled, then she yanked the sword out and watched the life fade in the mudman's dozen eyes. The fire on her arm leapt up the sword's blade, and she began slashing her way through the hallway, sending red fire and black heads and golden dust flying in all directions.

She lost track of time as she sliced her way through the prison's middle floor. The mudmen were neverending, but so, too, was her rage. Her suit's visual display showed outlines of humans in the cells lining either side of the hallway. Fuck knows what they must have thought of all the noise.

When she reached the other end of the hall, and the last mudman disappeared, Jess turned, gasping for breath. She threw her sword along the right edge of the hallway, manipulating the fire around it so that the sword sliced clean through the cell door locks as it went. When it reached the far end, she simply pulled it around the other side and cut the rest of the locks.

"Everyone!" she cried as her sword flew back into her hand. "You're free! Get the fuck out of here! Go upstairs and out the door on the far end! _Do not stop running_; get clear of the lakebed as fast as you can!"

The cell doors began to open, and soon terrified humans streamed down the hall and up the far stairs. Jess noticed a pair of twin girls among the crowd. Even their hair and clothes matched. _How's it coming Jack?_ she asked, reminded of her own twin.

_It's… coming,_ he thought briefly before returning to his delicate work. His leg clearly still pained him; Jess couldn't imagine trying to arm a fucking bomb just after her leg had been sliced off.

The twin girls were two of the first to reach the stairs leading to freedom. Jess leapt down the stairs behind her to free the last few people trapped on the bottom floor. No mudmen greeted her at the base of the stairs. Instead, a pair of gun turrets whirred to life in an alcove under the stairs and opened fire at her back. Jess leapt down the hall, away from the turrets, an then threw herself sideways. She exploded through a cell door and scared the living shit out of the humans trapped inside. _I could sure use Will's light shield right about now,_ she thought. Hundreds of bullets crashed against the door frame, though the door remained intact.

This gave Jess an idea.

She sliced the door off its hinges. It was heavier than she expected, made of some kind of metal and likely reinforced by enchantments. Jess was counting on this last fact as she cast her sword aside and pushed into the hallway, using the door as a shield against the two auto guns down the hall.

The sound was deafening as Jess pushed against the onslaught. Thousands of bullets pounded into the metal door, each hit like a smith's hammer on an anvil that sent shockwaves through Jess' arms. Her feet slipped, but she pressed both arms hard against the makeshift shield and shoved with all of her might. Inch by inch she advanced, two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward.

Her suit flashed an alarm in her vision and pulled up the map of the prison. The mudmen from the palace were almost here. None of the humans had gotten to the door in time. There was no way they could escape with so many mudmen outside.

"Shit," Jess said aloud. _There has to be some other way out…_

The metal of her door-shield suddenly gave way, and bullets ripped through a small hole near her side. She swore loudly as a bullet pierced her armor. The suit set to work on repairing the damage while she shifted her body away from the hole. She lost her footing, and the gun turrets began to push her back. She could feel beads of sweat trickle down her face under her helmet.

_Need… another way…_

Jess felt a tug at her senses from beyond the prison's walls. A spark of something deep under the lakebed outside, a giant something sleeping hundreds – maybe thousands – of feet below. At the touch of Jess' mind, the something awoke. The prison shook. The auto turrets punched another hole in Jess' shield. If the guns forced another hole in the door, she wasn't sure she would be able to dodge into another cell before the guns would catch her. She tried to press forward, but the ground shook too violently.

_Jess!_ thought Jack. _What's going on down there?_

Jess pushed her mind back to the giant below ground. She had thought it a secret weapon of Rita's at first, but now it touched her mind and filled her soul with warmth… and _Courage_.

_I found my zord,_ she answered.

The giant thing punched upward from the magma caves far below. The prison shook more and more until, at last, the far end of the building – including the small alcove housing the twin autoturrets – ripped away, replaced by the creature's red underbelly. With no more turrets raining hell down upon her, Jess dropped her door-shield and went about cutting the cell locks. By the time she was finished, the zord's tail was disappearing toward the surface. She sprinted to the hall's end to follow, pausing briefly as several mudmen fell, burning and screaming, past the gaping hole that used to be the prison's outer wall.

The zord had literally eaten through the far end of the prison as it climbed upward through the ground. Jess poked her head out and looked around. Below was a huge gaping hole that led straight down for who knows how far. Two stories above Jess, those twin girls looked down on her from the broken hallway of the prison's top floor. "That was so cool!" one of them shouted. "But now we can't get out…" said the other. Indeed, there was no way they could jump from the end of their hallway to the rock some dozens of feet away without falling down the hole made by the zord.

But a Power Ranger could. Jess leapt into the open space, caught herself on the far rock wall, and bounced up through the zord-tunnel. The twins made way for her, cheering happily as she landed with a thud that sent a painful reminder through her body that she had just been shot. From the top-floor hallway, Jess leapt across the small chasm to the cave-like opening her zord hard created. It was a short distance from the prison hall to wide-open space. Sunlight blinded her; the cave faced east, and it was still early morning.

Outside, the zord fought in broad daylight, and Jess got her first good look at the creature she had awoken deep below the Earth. Its body was long and low, with an impressive, thick tail and an equally thick neck. It spun its body on legs as wide as houses as it attacked the large ground force advancing from Rita's palace. The zord's entire body looked to be made of lava, with swirling reds and pulsing oranges so bright they almost hurt to look at.

"The Red Salamander," said Jess. She grinned. "Keep em busy for me." The Salamander glanced at the Ranger. She may have imagined it, but it looked like the great creature nodded at her. She turned back to the prison.

_How can I get these people out of here?_ She thought. She began rummaging through the pockets on her belt. Her suit's helmet showed the name of each object she touched, with a brief description of its use. Smoke pellets, healing salves, explosive gel, stun powder… _Didn't realize we were armed by fucking Batman._ At last, she alighted on a promising item: a new version of the mesh fabric she and the others had used to save the helicopter news guys earlier that night. She pulled out her entire stock, returned to the massive hole in the ground, and threw her nets.

The mesh shimmered red as it fluttered down slowly over the opening, shifting itself to fill the space properly. The far end landed just in front of the twins' feet and latched on to the metal of the hallway while the rest hardened and became a sort of daredevil's walkway. It spanned the distance, but it was only a few feet wide. Jess beckoned for people to start walking across. Happily, one of the twins took a step onto the mesh.

Shadows leapt from the metal of the prison hallway and released the mesh. The twin fell, her scream echoing down the tunnel. Jess leapt after her, catching the girl in one arm and the loose end of the mesh in the other. Thankfully the mesh stuck true to the rock outside of the palace, so Jess and the girl dangled at the end of it like they had just cut the ties to some jungle rope bridge from a lame action movie.

Up close, Jess realized that the girl wasn't actually that much younger than she was – fifteen or sixteen, perhaps. Jess tried not to think of herself at that age – all braces and awkwardness and insecurity as she struggled to find boys as irresistible as all the other girls did. It had not been a happy time, but at least she hadn't had to deal with being prisoner to a madwoman like this girl did.

"Hang on tight," Jess said, and the girl obliged, practically choking her as she pushed off the rock wall, mesh still in hand, back to the prison hallway and its terrified inhabitants.

"I knew you'd catch me," the girl said. "We'd heard about you guys all night; whenever the creeps brought new people in no one could talk about anything except the Guardians trying to save the city. It's about time you came for us. You're a girl, aren't you? I knew some of you had to be girls! They got me and my sister on our way to my friend Kyle's house. Kyle'd bought a whole bunch of fireworks from one of those highway fireworks stands that are only open for, like, two days of the year, you know? You're helmet's really cool, by the way. It looks like a… T-Rex or something. So anyway my friend Katie was driving us there. We didn't want to go but Katie has this huuuuuge crush on Kyle right now. Then the sky goes all dark and these things start falling from the sky, and all of the sudden this, like, floating train thing comes through the intersection and blocks the whole road. Then these ugly guys all covered in mud get out and point guns at everyone and push us into the train. It smelled so bad in there – this one guy threw up all over Cassie's shoes – Cassie's my twin – and this other guy pooped his pants…"

_Can you hurry and get them out of here?_ asked Jack, who was practically swarmed by terrified humans desperate to escape. _It's hard to concentrate._

_Speak for yourself,_ thought Jess, only half paying attention to the girl's stream of consciousness. Then, to herself, _Rita's enchantments must be what's keeping this stuff from sticking._ She pulled herself up into the hallway and set the girl down next to her sister. The two girls hugged each other viciously. Somewhere in the back of Jess' mind, she noticed just how familiar the girls looked.

"Rita has enchanted the hallway to keep my mesh from sticking," Jess shouted to the terrified crowd. "So I will hold down this end. You will have to run across. When you see the lava creature outside, don't worry: she's mine. She won't hurt you."

"Lava creature?" some of the prisoners muttered to each other. "This day keeps getting stranger and stranger…"

"You expect us to go across some net bridge that you'll be holding yourself?" said another prisoner. "You really think you can hold us up? Listen, girl…" The guy started toward her with the kind of condescending look that adults seemed to master somewhere in their 30s. Before the man could tell Jess exactly what he thought of her, she stepped to the side and calmly punched a hole in the metal wall. The man stopped in his tracks and didn't say another word.

"Thank you for saving me," the twin said to Jess. The girl threw her arms around Jess' neck and hugged her quickly before following her sister across the mesh, which hardened as it got further away from the prison. Jess braced herself as she held the other end. She placed a foot against the shattered remains of the wall and aligned herself as best as she could. Two teenage girls were easy enough to hold up, but as more and more people began running across the net bridge, she could feel the weight pushing her suit to its limits. The map of the area materialized before her again. The Red Salamander was making quick work of the mudman army, but now the Black Dragon was almost upon them.

"Hurry!" Jess groaned to the stragglers and those too scared to cross the bridge. "Get a move on!"

The man who had almost scolded her paused by her side. "Thank you," he said, his head down. "It's been a while since I believed in heroes." He sprinted over the mesh.

"I…" mumbled the man who followed him. He looked close to tears. "I'm afraid of… heights." Jess didn't have time for this shit. She kicked the man in the ass and sent him tumbling out onto the mesh, screaming as he rolled. He crawled the rest of the way, crying the whole time and seeming to pause to watch each tear as it disappeared into the abyss below him. He didn't look back when he made it to the other side.

_Just a few more,_ thought Jess_. Only a handful lef—_

Fire crackled behind her, followed by familiar laughter. "I could wait for reinforcements," Rito said, "and hell, Sis even ordered me to. But you know what I said to her? I said, 'LEEROOOOY JENKIIIIINNNS!' and bada-bing, bada-boom, here we are. Never been one for authority figures. You know how it is, Red."

Rito charged. The people still in the hallway leapt onto the mesh to get away from Rito. The extra weight pulled Jess closer to the edge. Her toes dangled over the precipice while the people depending on her began to scream like maniacs.

"Shut UP!" yelled Rito, his joking side suddenly gone as he thrust his sword forward and sent a jet of flame at the bridge. Jess side-stepped between Rito and the civilians, taking the brunt of the fire on her back. Normally fire hurt the Red Ranger about as much as a massage, but the Dark Dimension must have corrupted Rito's fire, for she felt every agonizing second. She kicked backward and sent a jet of flame through her leg. Rito dodged, and suddenly Jack's thoughts were in her head with a frantic _stop the fire, stop the fire!_

Jess stopped and looked behind her. Rito stomped towards her, his skeletal grin turned upside-down. For the first time, she realized that Rito's sword was made of bone, possibly the same bone that made up most of _him_. This close up, Rito was even larger than she had remembered, his shoulder pad-like bones thicker, the black of his eye sockets deeper. His skeletal appearance sent an involuntary chill down Jess' spine.

She ducked under a horizontal slash and sideways to avoid a downward slash. He attacked a third time, trying to catch her against the wall with a low swipe, but she leapt over his sword and landed a light kick to his stupid face just as his sword got lodged in the metal wall. Furious, he began attacking with his fists, and Jess strained to dodge around the blows coming from behind while holding on to her mesh. There were still humans crossing the great void, and she wasn't about to let Rita claim any more lives.

"You are SO annoying!" shouted Rito. "Hold still!"

_Everyone's almost across, just a little longer._ Rito changed his tactics and charged forward, arms open wide. There was nowhere for Jess to run to. He caught her in a bear hug and began to squeeze, letting his ugly, rotting bones dig into her body at painful angles. She struggled against his grip, but he was unfathomably stronger than she was. Jess felt her grip weaken on the mesh. Rito had caught her with her arms pinned to her sides; there was no way she could break free. Each time she breathed out, his hold became even tighter, slowly pushing the air out of her and preventing her from taking in new breath. To make matters even worse, Rito wreathed his own body in flames, burning Jess' back, arms, and chest.

She leapt straight up, taking Rito with her. Since he was taller than she was, he slammed head-first into the ceiling. Jess clung tight to the mesh, and the sudden shift created a whip-like motion that flung the last few humans over to safety. But as Jess came back down, Rito's grip held strong as ever.

_How can I break out of this? How can I…_ Images of those twin girls comforting each other and drawing strength from each other. _Jack!_ she thought. _Little help please!_

Reluctantly, Jack pulled himself away from the disrupter, but as soon as he saw Jess and Rito, he leapt into action. Jess felt Rito's body rock as Jack punched hard into his side. "What the!" Rito shouted. "Didn't I dismember you?"

"I got better," Jack growled as he landed another punch. Rito grunted, and his grip loosened.

_Got an idea,_ thought Jack. _Hold onto that mesh tight. D'you trust me?_

_ What kind of stupid-ass question is that?_

_ Like I said, hang on._ Jack pressed his rock-foot against Rito's back. Suddenly the foot extended, punching deep into Rito's spine. Rito and Jess tumbled together over the side and into the dark expanse. Jess and Rito fell until suddenly the mesh tightened, stretching to its limit under their combined weight as the pair swung in an arch downward towards the opposite rock wall.

Rito maintained his grip as the rock wall quickly approached, ready to crush her between it and Rito. "I love pancakes!" he shouted in Jess' ear. But while he held her arms in place, there wasn't much he could do to her legs. She swung them up and hit the wall feet-first, standing there briefly like a rock-climber repelling down into the world's deepest cave. When her feet hit, she thrust her head back and caught Rito square in the jaw. She felt it dislocate and come off completely, disappearing into the hole below. He tried to protest, but with no jaw, every word just came out as a sort of "nugh hhuk."

Jess pushed off the rock wall as hard as she could, using the mesh to swing the pair of them back up to the prison's top floor. The sudden shift in gravity loosened Rito's hold on her. As they swung, she kicked backward, landing a solid hit on kneecap.

At this, Rito let go completely.

Jess spun herself in midair, using the mesh to manipulate her position. She had to move quickly, for Rito's trajectory moved him away from her. She slung the mesh over Rito's face and twisted so that it coiled on itself around his neck. He let out a muffled yell as the mesh pulled him back into its swinging path. Jess pulled herself around until, at the apex of the swing, she let loose a fierce double-kick that set Rito straight down at an impossible speed. Jess backflipped through the air and landed next to Jack at the hall's edge. Rito swung downwards toward the rock in a pendulum arch, fighting to free himself from the mesh that blinded him.

At the base of Rito's swing, a thin spike of rock pushed out from the wall to meet him.

Rock exploded out from Rito's chest in a sickening crunch. He stopped fighting the mesh around his head. Jack retracted the spike back into the stone. He and Jess watched for a brief moment as Rito's body went limp, suspended above the chasm by a makeshift noose.

"That was for Alpha," said Jack.

When Rito's arms finally dropped to their sides, a red mist fluttered from his body, pausing for a moment before Jack and Jess. Within the mist Jess could just make out a face she had seen in the visions of her power's past.

"The old Red Ranger," she said quietly. The man in the mist bowed to her and her brother before disappearing. "I think we just freed his soul."

"Two old Rangers down," said Jack, "three more to go." He turned and raced back to the disrupter. _Keep defending,_ he thought as he ran_. I still need some time with this thing._

Jess fought to catch her breath. _Rito was so stupid to attack before reinforcements got here,_ she thought.

_Such was his way,_ said Zordon. _Courage, when corrupted, makes one brash. It was Rito's habit to rush into battle without thinking. It was in this way that the Dark Dimension cornered him and brought his soul over to its side._

Jess recalled her vision of the old Red Ranger sprinting through a forest on fire. His way had been blocked by Goldar, and Jess had never seen a memory that took place after that. _I never wondered where he was going,_ Jess thought.

_He had just received a report from the Green Ranger that Rita was in dire trouble,_ said Zordon. _He did not know that the Green Ranger had already succumbed to the Dark Dimension's influence, and that it had all been a trap._

_ Which Goldar sprung._ _Rita turned on her own brother._ Jess found her hands curled so tightly into fists that she feared her fingers might burst through her gloves.

_ Yes. But now you have freed his soul. I hope you understand the significance of your actions. That man has endured a thousand lifetimes of regret, and you have freed him._

Jess glanced back at Jack hard at work on the disrupter. _Rito wanted to kill people. We killed him instead. That's that._


	81. Episode 16 Ch 5 Come Together

Episode 16, Chapter 5 – Will

_Zordon,_ thought Will, _is it possible to save all of the former Rangers' souls?_

_Serket and Rito have found redemption thanks to your efforts,_ said Zordon._ But Rita, Grock, and Monga? I am unsure._

_Who the fuck are Grock and Monga?_ asked Ewan.

_Squatt and Baboo,_ answered April.

Ewan whistled. _Those two sure have led disappointing lives when it comes to names._

_ What about Master Tom?_ Will asked.

_Eh,_ thought Ewan, _his name's alright._

_No,_ _I mean can we save him?_

Zordon's answer was hesitant. _As I have said before, I believe it is possible. However, if his redemption is your focus, you will lose sight of the greater task at hand, and Rita may yet win._ Will's heart sank, though he knew Zordon was right. He could not afford to dwell on saving his father while Rita still held the upper hand. Zordon sensed Will's disappointment. _Rita chose Master Tom as her Black Ranger specifically to get into your head, Will. The White Ranger defeated her ten-thousand years ago; this is her revenge._

As the Halcyon left the city, they flew over the smoking remains of the United States Army. Great patches of black scorch marks scarred the highway that led to the lakes. Husks of tanks stood eerily silent among hundreds of cars clogging the outbound lanes. So many citizens had tried in vain to escape Cedar Grove. With any luck, there would be no more deaths today.

_Jess!_ thought April. _The Black Dragon is nearly on top of you!_

Thoughts began to flicker between the five Rangers faster than conscious thought would allow. Together they saw the locations of each other, what each Ranger saw, and just how desperate their situation had become. April piloted the Blue Halcyon through the clouds, using moisture in the air as well as Ewan's wind powers to boost the zord's speed while Will and Ewan clung to its wings, but the Black Dragon was simply too fast. It darted from shadow to shadow across the landscape so quickly that it may as well have been teleporting, and now it dove straight for the prison hidden under the lakebed. The Red Salamander stood over a large crowd of humans, acting as a shield to escort the people to safety. It would not be able to help defend the twin Rangers against the Black Ranger or his vicious lackeys.

As the Halcyon approached the lake, they saw Rita's palace in full view for the first time. All-black, with jagged spikes for turrets and lit from within with deep purple flame. The castle was huge: several hundred feet tall and more than a few acres around. Its very existence was a testament to Rita's deceptive magic, for nothing so large should have remained hidden for so long. Now it stood for all to see, a dark figure in an empty lake that had until yesterday been one of Cedar Grove's finest attractions.

Will and the others could see the very cliffs where their hellish night had begun. His heart ached at the sight of the gazeebo where he had led a tae kwon do class that afternoon. He wondered if any of those children were still alive.

The Black Dragon smashed headfirst into the side of the prison. Jess' vision went dark as rubble caved in on top of her. Pairs of hands reached through the rubble and pulled her out. Squatt held her off her feet, and Baboo, who perched silently on his shoulders, began taking quick jabs at her stomach, face, chest. The Red Salamander roared and turned to race to Jess' aid, but the Red Ranger forced it to stay with the people outside.

_We have to do something!_ thought April.

_Givin' her all she's got,_ Ewan thought.

At their angle in the sky, Will could see straight through the cave entrance that led to the prison. _I need you to remove the clouds. It's risky, but I think I can help._

_ But without the moisture it'll slow down the Halcyon,_ thought April.

_It will, but what I need right now is light._

Reluctantly, April dissolved the clouds in the sky before them. The Halcyon's speed noticeably decreased, leaving Ewan to push his powers even harder. Many of the black ships that had followed the Dragon now turned their sights on the Halcyon. _Hope you know what you're doing, boss,_ Ewan said as he strained to pull as much air as possible behind the zord.

_Me too,_ Will thought. He thought back to the old White Ranger and his final moments. The man had reached within his core and pushed outward, riding the light itself to take his body and Rita's all the way to Mars to trap her there. Light shimmered around him. It clung to his suit like a cloud of fireflies. It grew harder to focus ahead, but Will fought to maintain control. He held the light within him until just the right moment, and then he unleashed his power.

The effect was even more instantaneous than he had anticipated. Will traveled at the speed of light from the wing of the Halcyon across miles of lakeside cliffs and dry lakebed, past hundreds of airborne ships, through the cave entrance, and into Rita's prison. He rematerialized just in time to aim a flying kick into Squatt's side, sending both him and the beast on his shoulder crashing through the walls. Jess fell to the ground, coughing. "Can't believe that actually worked," said Will.

"And you didn't think to use that sooner?" groaned Jess.

He helped her to her feet. "Didn't know I could."

"That should be our team motto."

The prison rumbled, and several shards of metal fell from the ceiling. The Black Dragon's face pushed into the hole it had created a moment earlier. This close up, its sheer size made Will's heart skip a beat. He was smaller than its eyes, which turned to its right, where Jack worked feverishly on the disrupter.

"Dragon!" shouted the Black Ranger from somewhere outside, "fire blast!"

Will dove down the hallway and landed between the Dragon and Jack. He pulled his shield of light into being just as the Dragon let loose a rush of white-hot purple flame. Will's arm burned behind the shield, but he held strong, praying that the shield deflected enough of the fire away from Jack as well as the disrupter. A little red smoke pellet hit the Dragon right in the eye. It roared and pulled back, leaving a gaping hole and pure, unfiltered daylight that surged through Will's suit. Jess leapt out the hole after the zord just as Squatt and Baboo pulled themselves out of the craters they'd made in the wall. Baboo leapt back up onto Squatt's shoulders, and the big gray ogre shoulder-charged down the hallway straight for Will.

_Pissed him off so much that he's ignoring the disrupter_, thought Will. _Let's keep it that way._

Will had never been in a bull fight, but he suspected that it felt somewhat like this. The floor rattled with every stomp of Squatt's massive feet. He roared, sending flecks of saliva waving across his cheeks as he charged. Will bounced to the ceiling to dodge, but Baboo was ready for him. She hopped from Squatt's shoulder and punched Will in the stomach. She held on to his suit and rode him to the ground, where she landed hard on his chest with a flurry of kicks and punches. She cartwheeled off, turned sideways, and whipped her tail around Will's neck. She lifted him off the ground and held him there as Squatt charged him from behind. Will punched and kicked and tore at the tail, but Baboo did not loosen her grip. Will reached down to his pistol, but Baboo kicked forward and knocked it out of his grasp. Her eyes never left his, those creepy, mismatched, half-human, half-beast eyes.

A flaming sword spun through the hole made by the Black Dragon and sliced clean through Baboo's tail. Will fell to the ground and rolled away just in time to avoid being flattened by Squatt. Baboo screamed, nearly getting trampled herself. Will glanced out the huge hole in the wall to see the Red Ranger running along the spine of the Black Dragon, which was trying in vain to buck her off. Jess waved at Will, then she pulled her gun from her thigh and opened fire on the man who used to be Will's father.

_Are Jess and Master Tom fighting on top of the Dragon zord?_ asked Ewan. _That's pretty fuckin' rad._

_ So happy to entertain,_ thought Jess.

_No seriously, it's awesome. I'm kinda fangirling up here._

_We're almost there,_ thought April. _But more ships are coming. We need to split their focus between more than just the Halcyon and Salamander or else neither of us will last long._

_ Alright,_ thought Will. _Ewan, you're up. Time to see that zord of yours._

_ Jesus, finally._ Ewan slipped off the Halcyon's wings and into an open freefall. His descent slowed as air swirled around him, gathering strength until he found himself in the eye of a tornado. Ewan didn't even try to hide his excitement, despite the severity of the moment. _Fuck… YEAH!_ The tornado blasted apart in all directions, increasing the Halcyon's dive by nearly twice its current speed. April fought to maintain the Halcyon's descent in a way that wouldn't bury the zord a hundred feet underground.

But soon the great blue bird was joined by another. Where the Halcyon was squat and fat, this was lithe and graceful. Where the Halcyon was jagged ice and short, hard feathers, this was smooth, billowy down and ethereal wisps of golden smoke.

The Yellow Phoenix let loose a screech that could be heard for miles around.

_Shit just got real,_ thought Ewan. With two zords now bearing down on him, Master Tom and the Black Dragon took to the skies. Jess leapt from its back, falling through the hole in the wall to join Will, and not a moment too soon: Squatt and Baboo had recovered.

"Which one do you want?" Will asked.

"Doesn't matter," said Jess. "I'll fuck up either one."

"We'll fight together then. Just… don't try to ride on my shoulders."

"Hmph."

Jess brandished her sword, and Will his shield, and together they raced to place themselves between Jack and the tag-teaming monsters. Baboo massaged the end of her tail, which continued to spout thick, black blood with each heartbeat. Squatt rose to his full height, taking up nearly the entire hallway.

_How much more time do you need?_ Will asked Jack.

_About three minutes. If only Alpha was here, then I could cut that time in half. When this finishes, we'll only have a few seconds to get clear of the building, so be ready to haul ass._

_ Got it._

Rangers and monsters charged each other at the same time. As the four clashed, the metal around them rattled beneath the force of the battle raging outside. The Halcyon and the Phoenix were hopelessly outnumbered as the Black Dragon and the dark fleet blotted out the sun with their attacks. Every beat of the Phoenix's wings brought with it a small hurricane that spun the black ships in all directions and sent their shots wide, often straight down on top of the prison.

_This building might not last three minutes, _thought Jess, and Will was afraid that she might be right.

He and Jess began a fierce battle against Squatt and Baboo in the close quarters of the hallway, sword and shield flashing against Squatt's rock-hard skin and Baboo's incredible speed. Outside, April's and Ewan's vision showed them a bleak landscape of black, devoid of color save for the yellow, blue, and red of the zords raging against the swarm. Though the Salamander proved that the zords could fight without a pilot, Will felt that its autopilot was limited: at best, it could only wreck a few mudmen and stand as a shield against attacks. At worst, it might lose power before the Rangers were ready for their final attack. Will knew the Lion would be useless right now; the threats outside were airborn, and the Lion still needed to recover.

Will didn't know how many times Jess saved his life during the fight. Her reflexes were a little faster, her aim a little better. His years of martial arts training simply were not as helpful as her natural reflexes and her suit's excellent fighting skills. They fought as a four-armed unit, her sword in her right hand and his shield in his left, blocking for each other, deftly moving aside to give the other a clear space for a counterattack, pushing Squatt and Baboo back when one of the Rangers lost his or her balance. At one point, the fight even forced them to switch weapons so that Jess could shield herself from Squatt's powerful punch. As their weapons changed hands, Will's shield burst into flames and Jess' sword nearly blinded the Rangers with a sudden flash of light. The effect surprised Squatt and Baboo about as much as it surprised the Rangers.

And still, Will and Jess were losing.

No matter how they moved, neither Ranger could push the monsters more than a few feet back. If Squatt or Baboo was smart enough to remember the reason why all of Rita's forces had retreated to the lake, all it would take would be for Squatt to go full "raging bull" mode again, and the Rangers probably wouldn't be able to stop him before he reached Jack. Will's mind raced through the other Rangers' visions of the past, desperate for some kind of clue for a weakness. Rita had corrupted Serket while she still lived, but Baboo – or, Monga – had been killed before Rita turned her. Rita had said something about the living being stronger, so perhaps death had made these two dumber.

_Speaking of dumber, _thought Ewan _anyone seen Goldar lately?_

_Not since he captured me,_ thought Jess.

_Rita must be holding her strongest fighter back,_ thought Will. _Don't give her an opening to unleash him._

Will glanced past Squatt and Baboo. The massive hole in the ground from Jess' zord loomed several feet behind them. Below, Rito's corpse still hung from Jess' red mesh. If Will and Jess were careful, they might just be able to back the pair into the hole. _We need to push harder,_ Will thought to Jess. _Attack, now!_

A large piece of ceiling caved in just behind Squatt as more cannon fire rained down on the prison. Squatt spun, grabbed the rubble, and flung it at the advancing Rangers. Will slid under on his knees, deflecting the metal with his shield, while Jess leapt up, just barely scraping along the ceiling to avoid it. The metal chunk flew down the hallway, narrowly missing the disrupter.

_That was a little too close,_ thought Will. He and Jess regrouped, standing close together so that Will's shield could protect them both. Squatt and Baboo stared them down. The pair really was a comical sight: the massive ogre in his tattered clothes and gray skin, the lithe baboon creature that rode on his shoulders with blue fur and half-beast half-human eyes. But he was nearly indestructible, and she nearly impossible to hit. They were a deadly pair indeed. Had the Rangers attacked the train early in the night to disable Rita's EMP, as Will had wanted, these two likely would have killed them all. Zordon had seen that, and he had steered them clear until they were at least a little more ready.

Squatt took a step forward, then stopped with a roar and a shake of his head. For a moment, Will thought that more of the ceiling had fallen on him, but now Will saw that shadows fluttered around Squatt's face and Baboo's as well. Will heard the echo of a voice whispering something, but he couldn't tell what. Slowly, as though he fought against his own actions, Squatt knelt into a runner's starting position.

Jess swore. "Rita's controlling them," she said. "She's sending them after…"

Squatt exploded forward and knocked the Rangers hard to either side.

The Rangers tore after the mind-controlled monsters. Outside, the Phoenix crashed back-first into the lakebed under the weight of the Black Dragon. A dozen ice-feathers punched into the Dragon's back, giving the Phoenix enough of an opening to blast the Dragon away with wind. The Phoenix righted itself and returned to the skies just as a volley of cannonballs deepened the crater made by its body.

Will's pistol still lay in the hall, where Baboo had knocked it from his hand earlier. Now he scooped it off the ground as he and Jess sprinted after the monsters. His hand twitched, aching to fire off some shots to slow Squatt down, but any wayward blast could hit Jack or the disrupter. Reluctantly, Will holstered his pistol. He thought a warning to Jack, but the Green Ranger was distracted by his work and the guidance Professor Cranston was giving him. They would finish the disrupter soon, but Squatt and Baboo would reach them even sooner.

_Throw me,_ thought Jess.

_What?_ thought Will.

Jess flourished her sword. _Now._

At full sprint, Will fell into step directly behind her. Jess leapt, and Will leapt with her. Red boots pressed against white shield, and at the same time both Rangers pushed apart, sending Jess rocketing away. She became a red streak that sang down the hall, trailing flame in her wake. With their backs to her, Squatt and Baboo never saw her coming.

A flash of steel. Squatt staggered to the side and crashed into one of the prison cells, taking Baboo with him. Jess corkscrewed in the air, just barely missing the disrupter. Jack didn't even notice the body flying by. Will approached the prison cell slowly, his shield lighting the dark room. The floor was covered in black blood. Squatt's head was stuck in the wall, and Baboo lay trapped under his massive body. She assaulted him with everything she had to get him off her, but he didn't even seem to notice.

There was a high-pitched whine of a machine stirring to life in the hallway.

_Time to go,_ thought Jack.

Jack, Jess, and Will leapt clear of the prison – courtesy of the Dragon's hole in the wall – and were still high in the air when the disrupter went off. For a moment, light waves distorted inward toward the prison, then a great burst sent everything surging out. Will and the others were thrown even higher into the air by the blast. As his body spun out of control, Will could hear a woman's scream from the palace and knew without a doubt that it was Rita. Will's suit corrected his tumble through the air and, as he took in the new scene below, he summoned the White Lion once more.

The disrupter had doubled as a bomb, blowing the prison into a crater so big that it almost went as deep as the hole made by the Salamander. The air shimmered with silver electricity that jumped from black ship to black ship, zapping each one into oblivion as it went. Will felt a change in the air and suspected that the disrupter had worked, and that Rita's connection to the Dark Dimension had been severed. Sure enough, above him a portal opened up to allow another ship to enter the fray, but as the silver energy touched it, the portal destabilized and closed around the ship, slicing it in half and sending its burning remains crashing into the lake below.

As the ships exploded out of the sky one by one, Will felt a fresh wave of power. Sunlight flooded the area, no longer blocked out by the massive fleet.

And with the sunlight, the White Lion zord returned.

Will landed on all four paws and let loose a roar. To his side, the Salamander waddled across the lakebed to catch her master, having seen her charges safely to the lake's edge. On Will's other side, the ground shifted around a ridge of rocks that rippled across the surface at an impressive speed. It took Will a moment to realize that he was looking at the Green Crocodile, the last of the zords to enter battle. The Crocodile swam just below the surface of the ground, its emerald eyes pointed upward to catch its master.

As one, the twins landed within their zords and joined the Lion. The Halcyon and Phoenix streaked by overhead, rending the air with their cries. The closer the zords got to each other, the more they could feel their powers aching to combine. Will knew that it was time.

"Rangers," said Will, acting on the instincts bestowed on him by his Power, "form up!"

"Right!" said the others.

As one, the five Rangers shouted, "Megazord power, _now!_"

The zords locked on each other's positions and began to shift their forms. Will shared a memory of his own with the other Rangers, from when Zordon first told him how to summon the White Lion. _Your zords are incredible fighting forces on their own, each one the fullest expression of the element which your power represents._ _But they hold a secret. Under times of greatest need, your zords may combine to form Megazords of powers even greater than the sum of their parts. The more zords fused together, the greater the power, but I urge you: only use this when absolutely necessary. Use this too often, and the Earth itself will become unstable. Never forget that your powers come from the elements as much as it comes from my essence, and to abuse that power is to abuse the planet itself._

"Megazords?" asked Will, with an emphasis on the plural. "How many different ones are there?"

_As many as there are combinations of the six of you Rangers,_ said Zordon. _Yes, including the Black Dragon, for she was not always a force of evil. The ultimate Megazord would of course require all six of you, but if necessary fewer of you could combine. It only takes two, though this upsets the balance of nature. For instance, were the Blue Halcyon and Green Crocodile to form a Megazord, the result would quickly lead to mudslides and earthquakes and floods all around the world unless more zords were added soon. A combination of the Phoenix and Salamander could rapidly lead to tornadoes made of flame, and so on._

"So the more zords, the more stable the elements are?" the White Ranger asked.

_Exactly. Do not combine your zords until it is absolutely necessary, and you have gathered your full team together. The timing of your decision will save – or doom – the planet._

Will's memory faded to the present. The White Lion was no longer a lion, strictly-speaking. It hovered in the air like a small sun, folding in on itself in ways that should have been painful but mercifully were not. The Crocodile and Salamander rumbled across the ground beneath him, folding, elongating themselves, bending at odd angles, shifting around the Lion's body. Above, the Phoenix and Halcyon did the same. When the four zords attached to the Lion at the same time, Will's body seized, and his mind melded into those of the other four Rangers. Their thoughts, their very memories became indistinct from each other. Suddenly Will was a young girl watching her father abuse her mother. He was a timid son of an alcoholic. He was a womanizer. He was a girl struggling to find her own identity. He was an orphan. He was the oldest child, the youngest, the middle, the twin, the only. He was boy and girl, dark-skinned and light, brunette and blond. He raced through five childhoods that intertwined until they were one.

All of these things happened in an instant, though they felt as though they had taken a lifetime.

When Will came to, gasping for air, he looked down and realized that he had no body. His consciousness sat within the new machine; the Megazord was his body now. He felt the other four with him. All had experienced the same insane mind-trip, and no one was sure what to say next. What could you say, after being completely inside someone's mind? What could you say, after experiencing someone else's entire life?

_So,_ thought Ewan, _with our powers combined… we are Captain Planet?_

The Rangers laughed, happy to have the tension eased, and now they were able to focus on their new weapon. The five zords had come together to form an enormous humanoid body made of light, that floated just off the ground like some ethereal being. Will had expected each zord to attach as a specific body part – say, an arm, or the head – but this was not the case. The five zords had blended into each other so completely that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Each Ranger had something of a focal point – Jess centered within the arms, Jack the legs, Ewan the torso, April the eyes and wings, and Will the brain – but they were too interconnected to discern any meaningful differences.

So, too, were the Rangers' minds. Despite the Rangers' foci around the zord, Will could no longer determine where he ended and April, or Jack, or Jess, or Ewan began. As overwhelming as it had been to pilot the White Lion, that was nothing compared to this.

_Behold,_ said Zordon, _the Angel Megazord, the result of a combination of all elements but darkness. In this form, balance tips in favor of light. Will, be careful that your mind does not dominate the others. You must take swift action or risk losing a part of yourselves to the White Ranger power._

Rita screamed from the top of her palace again. The Rangers felt her fury, though not one of them was afraid. Dark tendrils of Rita's power flowed from the palace's highest tower. They reached into the sky and latched on to the few ships that hadn't yet been obliterated by the disrupter. The grotesque super-ship that April had fought soared down and became the center of Rita's new dark spell. She pulled every ship she could into it, growing the monster larger and larger until it stood nearly as tall as the palace itself. Battleships formed its entire humanoid body. Mudmen crawled along its skin like ants. It was a crude imitation of the Megazord floating before it, and though it held several times more power than the three-part ship that had nearly taken down the Halcyon, the Megazord watched calmly as it completed its gruesome transformation.

"Your Megazord is nothing!" cried Rita, her voice magically magnified from the top of her palace. "The Dark Dimension will crush you into oblivion!"

Every last ship in the sky had been added to the creature. Its body was almost nothing but iron and cannons, and all were aimed at the Megazord. Behind the creature, the Black Dragon glided around the palace, suddenly dwarfed by the sheer size of the monster ship.

The monster's guns all fired at once. Thousands of projectiles roared through the sky, fully prepared to rend the Megazord into a million pieces like buckshot through tissue.

What it got instead was a wall of light.

Every last cannonball disintegrated to dust. The Megazord didn't even lift a finger to defend itself. As Rita screamed her fury, the Megazord reached into the sky, and a massive sword of light, dozens of stories long and more than two stories wide, materialized in its hands. Without a word, it leapt forward and brought the sword down across the monster's chest, leaving a thin orange line running from right shoulder to left hip. All was silent for the briefest of moments before the monster bellowed in agony and fell to one knee, bleeding golden dust like the sand of an hourglass. Calmly, the Megazord turned its gaze to Rita standing alone on the little balcony of her tower. She stepped back, her face a mixture of rage and terror.

"The Megazord never had that much power!" she screeched. "Black Ranger! I command you to join your zord with my monster, then destroy these upstarts!"

The Dragon spun around the tower and dove for the crippled machine at the Megazord's feet. The Rangers felt the presence of the sixth Ranger within the zord. They recalled what Rito had said as he had carried Jess to Central Square. _She cleansed the Dark Dimension from the Black Ranger power just so that she could get her little puppet dude into the Command Center…_ The Rangers felt Rita's magic around the Black Ranger; she controlled him externally, much as she had with April in Central Square. A burst of April's own power had freed her from Rita's enchantment.

Now it was Master Tom's turn.

_Now you understand the risk I took_, thought Zordon. _In allowing Rita to attack me, I forced her to cleanse the Black Ranger power of the Dark Dimension's corruption._

As the Dragon dove, the five Rangers sensed the Black Ranger beginning its Megazord formation with the monster… but something was amiss. Behind Rita's control, they could sense a presence fighting her will. It tipped the Black Dragon toward the Angel Megazord just as Rita commanded the zord to form up.

Too late did Rita realize the trap she had fallen into. She turned the Dragon and tried to force its escape, but the six Rangers – Tom included – overpowered her. Rita could only watch, horrified, as the Dragon shifted into the Rangers' Megazord, changing its form, tempering its overpowering light with shadow, granting it wings that were at once Halcyon and Phoenix and Dragon. Then the wings shifted again. The Dragon aspect disappeared and became something else. Slowly, the Black Ranger's body faded into the Megazord.

Master Tom's memories hit the others in a rush. Childhood, high school, Kimberly Hart, martial arts tournaments, Will. So many memories of Will, watching over him, caring for him, loving him as the son he had never had. Then the memories of the Dark Dimension. Goldar's deception, making him believe that the Rangers had attacked Kim. Tom's own point of view when he killed Ewan's mother, his mind screaming as his body performed the act with a grin. Every moment, Tom fought against Rita's control, but the witch had simply been too powerful.

Until now.

Five minds became six. The Black zord finished folding itself into the Megazord. Zordon's ultimate weapon now walked the Earth, and as the Rangers welcomed Master Tom into their team, and he strove to seek their forgiveness, Rita slunk back into her tower to prepare her final gambit.


	82. Episode 17 Ch 1 Cunning

Episode 17, Chapter 1 – Jack

Six minds flowing freely through each other made for some unexpected chaos. Through Tom's memories of his old girlfriend Kim, April saw Coach Hart, her old gymnastics coach. The memories bled into each other until Tom performed his first handstand with the help of his old flame, and April shared passionate kisses with her coach. Jack felt Will's suspicion that Tom regretted adopting him, and indeed, they could see brief memories of Tom wishing for a different life. They also felt Ewan's initial lust for April; all six Rangers saw her through his eyes as he analyzed every inch of her body, every curve beneath her bathing suit atop the cliffs. They also felt Ewan's shame, for now he understood what it must be like to live as a woman who had to endure the ever-present gaze of creeps like him. They even experienced Jess' recent fear that she would lose any of them, and the love she realized she had for her friends, followed immediately by her embarrassment that such private emotions were laid bare to the group.

All of these emotions tumbled over each other in a confusing heap. Jack felt as though their minds had been thrown into a clothes washer, and now memories were mashed up and thrown together for some spectacularly mismatched outfits.

_The initial shock of convergence can be overwhelming,_ Zordon thought to them. _This was one of many reasons why I did not reveal the zords' technology to you so early on. A team with less cohesion than yours could go mad from the confusion. You could lose yourselves in the minds of your friends._ Jack felt Tom's surprise at hearing Professor Cranston's mind linked to Zordon's, and briefly the six Rangers flickered through Tom's memories of the dorky professor in his high school years. Between the Professor, and April's coach, and Will, Jack began to wonder if there was anyone from tonight to whom Tom _wasn't_ connected. Then Tom saw Jason the paramedic in the memories of the other Rangers. They felt his recognition of his old friend, and Jack's suspicion was confirmed.

_In time,_ Zordon continued_, you will grow accustomed to functioning as one. Tom Oliver, I officially welcome you to my team of Power Rangers, and I feel I owe you an explanation. Your power may feel different now than it has these past few hours._ Tom acknowledged that this was so. Jack and the others felt his intense shame and saw his memories of destroying the Command Center. _It is alright,_ Zordon assured him. _It was a feint, a trap of mine that Rita played into perfectly. It was not without its consequences, but the benefits have far outweighed the cost._

_The first and most important benefit, of course, is that we freed your soul from Rita's grasp, and this cannot be welcomed enough. Ten-thousand years ago, Rita Repulsa was banished from Earth by my old White Ranger, and I believe the memory has haunted her ever since. When she returned to Earth, she vowed vengeance on me and, in particular, the White Ranger. Over the course of the night, she obtained Will's power coin, and though it did not contain his power as she thought it might, it held residual aspects of his essence, which is so similar to yours that Rita may have thought you his biological father. This is why she targeted you. She thought she already knew how to handle the other Rangers as she had in the past, so you became her secret weapon against the White Ranger._

_But Rita overplayed her hand. She was overconfident in her own ability, and though it has indeed become great, I do not believe she anticipated the strength of character you possess. I know you felt Professor Cranston's presence while you destroyed the Command Center. I know you concealed him from Rita, and for that, I am eternally grateful. For Bill Cranston was the second part of my plan. He and I have already spoken at great length about what his knowledge has added to my Wisdom, but until now he has been unaware of the second, equally crucial part he has played. When Bill Cranston's essence combined with mine, it altered me – not by a significant amount, for we already share many qualities, but enough to change one of my seven aspects, the only aspect not still connected to me at the time._

_Simply put, the Black power is no longer that of Ambition. Tom Oliver is now the Ranger of Cunning, a slight but key difference from Ambition that will prevent Rita from ever reclaiming this power… unless of course she proves victorious today. And though the six of you are even finer Rangers than I could ever have asked for, the odds are still stacked heavily against you. You must remain on your toes: Rita will never admit defeat, even in the face of the Ultimate Megazord._

The Rangers began to sense Rita's power trickling through the air around them. Gone were the tendrils of darkness she had used to bring her battleships together; this power was smaller, more subtle. It reached past the Megazord and disappeared into the wreckage of the prison. The Rangers could not begin to guess what she was doing until three tiny bodies floated out from the rubble: Rito, Squatt, and Baboo. All three bodies were wrecked almost beyond recognition, and none of them so much as twitched as Rita pulled them through the air toward the palace.

Rita herself reappeared at the palace balcony. "You stole my Ranger from me," she growled. "You have defied me at every turn, foiled every plot!" Whispers of another voice, which both Tom and Will had heard before, echoed beneath Rita's as she ranted. "You even killed my oldest comrades!" Rito, Squatt, and Baboo hung in the air over the broken battleship monster, which hadn't stopped bleeding golden dust. "I admit that I underestimated your precious Megazord. I thought my power alone would be enough to stop you, well…" she laughed. "I guess I'll just have to stir a few more ingredients into the pot!"

Rita flung the three corpses at the battleship. She turned and beckoned at something behind her, and a single mudman leapt from her balcony. It still held the more humanoid form of the early mudmen, rather than the mantis-like newer forms, though it was missing one of its arms. Tom's mind showed surprise, then apprehension.

The mudman was Ewan's mother.

She and the corpses landed on the battleship and sunk into its hull. "I may not have Rangers of my own any longer," said Rita, "but these corpses should do nicely." The ship screeched like metal on metal, nearly deafening the Rangers. "Behold!" Rita screamed above the sound, "the Dark Antizord!"

_She must be the one who named Squatt and Baboo,_ thought Ewan. _It's really not her specialty._

If they thought this thing was ugly before, now the Antizord was positively repulsive, a sickening parody of the beauty of the Megazord. The guns that covered the battleship's hull disappeared, replaced by lesions and boils that broke open with the slightest movement. Each wound gushed a thick green-brown pus that ran in bloody clumps. The monster's surface became a mixture of the mottled, diseased skin of Squatt and the rotted bone of Rito. Here and there were patches of faded blue fur that bristled and crunched like dead grass. The Antizord had two functioning legs and four arms, just like the new mudmen, but it had at least twice as many vestigial appendages: misshapen stumps of extra arms and legs that stuck out at odd angles and wiggled with apparent uselessness.

The Antizord rose onto its two good legs, reached to its side, and broke off one of its own defunct limbs with a grunt of pain.

_It looks like death itself,_ thought Will.

It grabbed the dead limb in two hands and pulled them apart, extending the bone until it became a rough imitation of Rito's bone-sword.

_I believe that is Rita's point,_ said Zordon. _For our Megazord represents all that is life._

The Antizord leapt forward, its extra limbs waving in the breeze. Its speed was incredible; the Megazord barely lifted its sword in time to parry. When the two swords clashed, it rang like thunder across the entire lake and beyond.

The Megazord shoved its foe back and fired a blast of energy from its free hand. The Antizord swiped it away with a casualness that made the Rangers uneasy. They had put quite a bit of power into that blast. For the Antizord to deflect it so effortlessly…

_Its power is incredible,_ Will admitted.

_But if we beat it,_ thought Jess, _then we beat Rita, right?_

_ I don't think so,_ thought Tom. _Rita's planning something inside the castle. I never learned what it was, but I know that she has something else up her sleeve. As long as we stay out here, we're wasting time. But we can't just let the Antizord run free, either…_

_Then we have to split up,_ thought Will, much as he hated to admit it. _Master, do you know the palace layout?_

_ Parts of it. I think I can sneak inside alone._

_ No. I'm coming with you._

The Rangers sensed each other's anxiety, Tom's most of all. He feared anything happening to Will. He had seen Rita's power first-hand and knew the dangers. But they also felt Will's fear of losing another parent. He hadn't been able to protect his old family, but he could protect Tom now. Jack and the others felt they had no choice; it would take at least four Rangers to pilot the Megazord in its current state, and even then it would be somewhat weaker without two of its pilots present.

But Tom was right: they could see his memories. Rita was planning something in the palace, and unless they stopped her now, she would unleash something truly horrible.


	83. Episode 17 Ch 2 The Palace

Episode 17, Chapter 2 – Tom

Tom used a combination of the cover of darkness, his own knowledge of the palace layout, and the Black Ranger's ability to teleport between shadows to slip Will and himself past the palace defenses. Melding minds with five other people – and college kids at that! – had been beyond description. To experience someone else's life so completely, and to have five others experience the same of you… Tom had known Will since he was very young, and Ewan and Jack almost as long. He knew Jess mostly from anecdotes, and April he hadn't met at all, yet the girl was so like Kim that it made him a little uncomfortable. But now he knew every inch of their lives, every triumph, every dark secret.

The experience had seen him stripped down, emotionally and physically. He had born all to these five kids, and he had seen them with the same depth. For some time after exiting the Megazord, he struggled to recall which were his memories and which were those of the others.

_This way,_ he thought to Will. To the others he added, _Once we're inside, it will be hard to communicate. Rita has enchantments everywhere._

_Understood,_ thought the other Rangers. The Megazord dodged beneath a rotting slash with the speed of a lightning bolt and punched the Antizord hard in the stomach. Its fist came away covered in pus and rotted flesh and more than a few blue hairs the length of a car. _So gross,_ thought Ewan and Jess.

_I feel bad ditching them as soon as the fight starts,_ Tom thought.

_Me too,_ thought Will._ But they understand, and they're more than capable._

_ You should see how much you guys have pissed off Rita tonight._

Will chuckled. _We have. We saw your memories, remember?_

_ Oh… yeah, I almost forgot. Hey, Buddy…_

_ It's alright, Master. You never made me feel like a burden, not once, even if you thought it sometimes._

_Thanks, Will_. Tom used darkness to teleport the two Rangers through an open window, right between a pair of patrolling guards. _I'm so proud of you. What you guys have accomplished is incredible._

_ And what we'll accomplish with you on our side will just be that much better._

The inside of Rita's palace was fashioned after an old gothic castle. No expense was spared to detail; every inch of the place had some ornate twist in its architecture or some clever work of artistry. Everywhere they looked, there was Rita Repulsa at her most beautiful. Paintings, sculptures, silhouettes within the fine details of the walls. Everything celebrated Rita in rich golds and deep, deep blacks. Even the torches along the walls looked like the sleeves of Rita's dress.

But her mudmen were just as ubiquitous as she was, and they were on full alert with the Megazord at their front door. Not only that, but scattered among the mudmen were darker creatures than had been in the city. Rita had kept back her very strongest to protect herself. Fiery hellhounds, creeping spiders the size of horses, and flat-out demons lurked these halls, and any of them alone would prove a match for the two Rangers.

_Rita's throne room is in the central tower_, thought Tom. _It should be… this way._

Tom led them through dark hallways, extinguishing torches and misdirecting monsters by breaking tiny chips off the decorations and throwing them down the hallways opposite where they intended to go. Sooner or later, though, he and Will both knew that they would have to fight. Stealth would only take them so far.

Here and there they caught flashes of the battle raging outside. Sometimes it was through quick thoughts from the other Rangers that breached Rita's dark enchantments, but as Tom and Will climbed higher and higher, and Rita's spells increased in potency, the two had to rely on the old fashioned method: looking out the window. The sight of such huge creatures battling so close by never ceased to make Tom uneasy. They could feel the rumble of the Megazord's clashes. The light from its attacks lit the dark hallway with all the colors of the rainbow. Yet Tom could no longer contact the minds of the other Rangers.

Halfway up the tower, Tom began to have doubts. Nothing looked familiar anymore. They stopped and glanced outside.

The central tower loomed across from them. Tom cursed his faulty memory just as a nearby mudman clicked in surprise. They'd been spotted.

The palace swarmed to life like Tom had just stepped on an anthill. Hundreds of mudmen crawled along the palace walls outside, and by the time Will silenced the first mudman a dozen more were already rushing up the stairs behind them, trailed closely by snarling dark wolves and pitch-black spiders that scurried along the walls and ceiling.

_Up!_ thought Tom.

As they ran, ever spiraling upwards, he reached toward the wall and pulled his black dagger from the shadows. Will led the charge with a pistol in either hand. Tom dropped smoke pellets and caltrops behind him to slow down their pursuers. Here and there he also placed deposits of explosive gel. Though the bulk of Rita's army was below, the two Rangers still encountered plenty of opposition descending from the floors above. But speed was their greatest ally now, and those creatures who dodged around Will's pistol blasts or Tom's quick dagger slices joined with the growing tidal wave that followed them ever upwards.

They reached the top floor sooner than Tom expected. He and Will nearly barreled straight into a large double-doorway made of thick oak. A pair of full-length torches burned an ominous purple on either side. Will pushed the doors open to find a sort of magical workshop, with vials full of colorful liquids and dead animals and body parts lining the walls around a central cauldron. It smelled like something had died in a coffee shop, and the brown contents of the cauldron did not help make the smell any more palatable. Tom reached into his belt and flung the last of his explosive gel across the doorway. "This is gonna be close!" he said. "Blast the ceiling open!"

Will opened fire at the ceiling with both pistols, and as holes began to form, they heard bits of thought from the Megazord.

_Y… alright?_ the others thought, complete with images of white energy bolts punching through the roof of the palace's western tower. The tower, Tom noted, was absolutely covered in mudmen.

_We're fine,_ thought Will. Then to Tom, _So what's the plan?_

_We jump,_ thought Tom. _We're in the wrong tower._ The first wave of monsters was almost to the top of the stairs; the sound of them was quickly growing to a deafening roar. _You ready?_

Will holstered his guns. _Rita's new skylights have been installed._

Tom spun and fired a shot at the explosive gel outside the room just as the first mudmen summited the stairs. He and Will leapt as hard as they could, straight through the pair of holes Will had shot through the ceiling. Rita's central tower was over a dozen stories taller than the western tower, but the explosion from Tom's gel pushed them higher and, at the same time, blew away the top of the tower and all of the mudmen climbing it. One by one the extra spots of gel caught fire and exploded, creating a chain reaction that spiraled down to the tower's base. Those few mudmen not caught in the blast made straight for the pair of Rangers sailing through the air, and unfortunately, they were catching up.

_Not to worry!_ thought the Rangers in the Megazord. Tom felt his and Will's bodies being accelerated through the air by invisible wind currents. The Megazord kicked at the ground, sending up a cloud of rocky debris that it flung behind Tom and Will like a shotgun blast that rent the pursuing mudmen to dust.

_One last push and we're there!_ thought Tom.

_We gotcha!_ thought the others, but the Antizord pressed its attack and found an opening while the Megazord was distracted. Tom felt the wind collapse behind him, and his ascent slowed.

Rita's balcony was just ahead, but at their current rate, they wouldn't make it. Up here, there were no shadows Tom could use to teleport them to safety.

Will turned his body through the air and slowed his jump to bring himself closer to Tom. He grabbed Tom's shoulder. _Hang on,_ Will thought. The White Ranger pulled the two of them along a trail of light.

Tom landed, tucked, rolled. When he hauled himself back to his feet, he and Will stood in Rita's throne room.

The room was dark, lit sparingly by sconces along the wall that glowed with Rita's trademark purple flame. Gray mist hovered along the floor, as it did within the Dark Dimension. The room itself was of a medium size, and dome-shaped, as if to serve as an imitation of Zordon's Command Center. At the far end, sitting opposite the balcony, was the throne itself.

The throne was as beautiful as the woman sitting on it, the style as gothic as the rest of the palace. It was made of a black material – obsidian, perhaps – that glinted in the purple firelight. Rita watched the pair of Rangers enter without a word, her usual grin replaced by a look of pure fury. To her right stood Goldar, his arms crossed and his usual smirk playing across his fiery face.

To Rita's left, Kimberly Hart lay on the floor, her arms and legs tied and her mouth gagged.

"I was hoping you two would be the ones foolish enough to come," growled Rita. "I welcome you to my vengeance."


	84. Episode 17 Ch 3 The Cause of Shadows

Episode 17, Chapter 3 – Will

Kim lay unmoving, but her eyes were open, and they watched the two Rangers with a blank expression.

"Surprised?" taunted Rita. "Don't be. I let you see only what I wanted you to." A large group of mudmen landed on the balcony, led by a demon with leathery wings and a twisted face without eyes. Tom and Will drew their weapons, but Rita tipped her staff forward, and a dark shadow leapt between the Rangers and engulfed the devil and his team. Their mouths opened but uttered no sound. Pieces of the mudmen fell apart as the shadow condensed, slowly pulling the creatures toward a central point. Then all of the monsters collapsed into each other, crunching into a single, tiny body within the gravity of a miniature black hole. The monsters disappeared, and Rita waved the black hole away.

"I would still have my western tower if those fools had not chased you," said Rita. "Now, where were we? Goldar?"

"Your plans," the monster said with his usual rough voice. Will watched him closely. He'd never seen the monster so calm. Cocky, yes, but never quite like this. He looked as though Rita owned the world already, and this meeting was merely a formality.

"Yes, my plans." Rita held her staff across her lap. She stroked it idly as she talked. "You Power Rangers know nothing of what you are doing. I'm sure Zordon gave you his usual speech about light and dark, good and evil…" She spat.

"We saw what happened to the old Rangers," said Will. "We saw what happened to you, Rita, and to you, Dredwing." Rita frowned. Goldar's smirk only grew. "And at some level, I agree with you. Zordon forgot what he was protecting. When he sacrificed that village, he let the bigger picture get in the way of individuals. I can only imagine what you must have gone through, to lose the ones you love for something so unnecessary."

"DON'T," screamed Rita, "TRY TO RELATE TO ME. You know not of what I suffered! Zordon's so-called _wisdom_ let him kill Dredwing out of spite! We gained nothing by letting them die! Nothing!" Rita took a moment to collect herself. She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened them again. The purple torches around the room pulsed in time with her breaths. "He wanted to alienate us from the rest of humanity. He wanted his Rangers to depend on him, and him alone. Do you know who else does that, hmm? _Cult leaders_. Zordon manipulated us, as he manipulates you now." A faint smile played across Rita's lips, though the smile did not reach her eyes. "Zordon knew of your affection for this woman, Tom Oliver." Rita prodded Kim's leg with her staff. Kim's cry was muffled against her gag. Tom stepped forward, but Will held him back.

"What are you playing at, Rita?" Tom demanded.

"Did you really think that all I fought for was world domination? Did you even once question what my motives may be, or did you blindly follow whatever Zordon told you?"

Will abandoned his fighting stance. He held his hands to either side as a sign of peace. "Honestly, I'm tired of fighting, Rita. I would like to hear what you have to say."

"You would?" Tom said. Goldar's smirk grew. Rita shared Tom's surprise, and continued with a hesitant eye on Will.

"Did Zordon ever tell you of the origin of the Dark Dimension?" she asked.

"He said it was a manifestation of evil," said Will.

Rita smiled. "As ever, that great oaf only told you what he wanted you to know. When his kind first arrived on this planet, they were told of a great dragon that had been locked away beneath the planet's surface. Zordon and his idiotic band of travelers found this creature locked within a crystal deep beneath the ground. They were foolish enough to remove the crystal, and, surprise surprise, the dragon's spirit escaped. It spread its influence, caused mass extinctions on the Earth. It almost wiped out Zordon's traveling party. Too bad it didn't."

"So Zordon made a mistake," said Will. "He's spent an eternity atoning for this. It doesn't explain your actions."

"Oh, but it does. Haven't you figured it out yet? The darkness feeds off the light. I sought to take over the planet not to rule it, but to kill it. Destroy the Darkness' source of energy, and it will die."

Will could hardly believe what he was hearing. "You went crazy just because Zordon sacrificed a single village, and now you want to do the same for the entire human race!?"

Rita laughed softly. "I admit that Dredwing's death did affect my sanity. I had already dabbled in powers beyond that which Zordon granted us, so I used it to call forth my lover's spirit into a newer, stronger form." She motioned at Goldar. The scratch on his cheek, which Will had given him with his own sword yesterday evening, wrinkled as Goldar chuckled softly. "But while I lay imprisoned on Mars, I had a great deal of time on my hands to think. I served Zordon for hundreds of years as his most loyal Ranger. Our team battled demon after demon after demon, and do you know what happened? More appeared. Their numbers never diminished. If anything, the more we fought, the stronger they became. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized something. The village Zordon sacrificed – Dredwing's village: after its destruction, demons stopped appearing in that area. And do you know why? I think you do. You are so very clever."

"No humans," said Will. Now he understood.

"No humans," nodded Rita. "Without humanity, there is no evil. It was upon this realization that I started my preparations for this day. Dark Matter has a consciousness, but it is weak and easily malleable. I knew that I could use it to destroy itself. I would take over the Earth, and I would cleanse it of the light that cast such wicked shadows into the universe. My hope was that you humans of today, you enlightened, _civilized_ beings, would see my power and bow without further bloodshed… but you Rangers complicated matters. In battling you, I had to capture more humans and turn them into my Putty army. I had to feed the darkness because of your resistance. Every Putty you defeated was another innocent lost in the name of your misplaced justice."

Will tried to ignore this fact. He would grieve for the high loss of life later. "You forced our hand. Don't try to blame your actions on us. You would kill them all anyway."

"Ever the pet of Zordon. You wash your hands of any wrongdoing, no matter the pool of blood in which you drown. But this is irrelevant. My plan is almost complete. With one choice, I will topple your team and destroy this world. I will make the sacrifice that Zordon never could. To destroy evil, I must also destroy good, for what is one without the other? Each is defined by the existence of its opposite. I destroy one, and the other will fade into nothing. Tom. Black Ranger… your Power has changed."

"That's right Rita," said Tom. "You won't control me anymore."

Rita sneered. "Indeed. But I saw your mind, Tom, when it was still mine to control. I know your desires, and they do not lie with this would-be son of yours. You know the truth. I have brought your lover, and with her comes a choice." Rita waved her staff. The bindings around Kim fell away. Kim sat up, rubbing her wrists and ankles and cheeks.

"Tommy?" Kim whispered, staring at the Black Ranger. "Is that really you?"

Tom hesitated, then removed his helmet. "Hey Kim," he said, his voice straining to summit his emotions.

Kim smiled through tears. "I saw you two fighting on the news earlier. I had a feeling that it was you."

"That's enough, dear," said Rita. She waved her staff again, and black bindings jumped from the shadows and tied Kim up.

"Let her go," Tom said through gritted teeth. "She has nothing to do with any of this."

"On the contrary," said Rita pleasantly, "she has everything to do with this. I will destroy humanity, Ranger. Make no mistake about that. I will use the Dark Dimension against itself and destroy its source of renewal. Without the evil we humans cause day in and day out, the Dark Dimension will wither to nothing, and this planet can survive. We humans had our chance, and we failed. But I like you, Tom. I saw your pains, and I want to offer you the choice Zordon never gave me. If you stand down now, I will let you and Kim live. No tricks. You will be safe and comfortable, and you will be happy together until you die, the last of humanity. All you have to do is stop fighting, and let history take its course."

"No way, Rita," Tom answered immediately. "I'm not going anywhere without my son."

Rita waved the comment away like a mosquito. "Oh very well. If family is so important to you, the boy may live, too."

Will recalled Rita's speech in Central Square, about how family turned humans on each other. Human in-fighting was like a breeding ground for Dark Matter. Humanity helped spawn the very enemy that the Power Rangers were sworn to fight in its defense. The struggle would be never-ending so long as humans lived. At last Will understood Rita.

Now, humanity itself rested on the decision of Tom Oliver.

Master Tom's eyes never left Kim's. So much was said between their unspoken gaze. Will had seen Tom's memories of her. They had been so close. Tom had already found a place to live in Springfield, where Kim had moved to train full-time in gymnastics. He had spent weeks, _months_ perfecting what he would say to try to win her back. Then Will's family had died, and, well, Will knew the rest from his own memories.

Master Tom said nothing. The two giants raged outside, and from the sound of it, neither had gained the upper hand. But within this throne room, Will had absolutely no chance of contacting the other Rangers or Zordon. It was just him and Tom against Rita and her impossible choice.

Instead, Will found himself glancing to Goldar. The monster hadn't said a word this entire time, but something about his calm just unsettled Will. He had barely moved a muscle; he simply stood there, smirking at the Rangers. Will's mind began to wander through the events of the night, the things he had learned about the Rangers' past, the memories of the old White Ranger. Goldar had once been Dredwing, Rita's human lover. He had been killed by a great dragon, which the Yellow Ranger had shot down soon after it destroyed Dredwing's village. Rita used dark magic to summon Dredwing's spirit back to hi–

Will's stomach dropped. Goldar's eyes flickered in his direction, and Will saw the echo of another face moving just behind Goldar's. Will had seen that face before – in the memories of April, who had seen a face in Rita's shadow in Central Square. It appeared to manipulate Rita, though she obviously had no idea.

The Dark Dimension controlled Rita. The spirit she had summoned into Dredwing wasn't his at all, but that of the great dragon, the same one from the legend Zordon had told them. The answer was right there, in Zordon's past. _They were told of a great dragon who had been locked away beneath the planet's surface._

Rita wasn't the mastermind here. She never was.

Tom opened his mouth to speak. Will leapt forward so fast that Rita had no time to throw up a defense. But one had already been set in place, for Will's body smashed against an invisible wall at the top of the steps leading to the throne. He tumbled back. Tom was at his side immediately.

"Buddy!" said Tom. "You okay?"

"I have to touch her," Will whispered.

"You… what?"

"Like I did with you in Central Square. Remember?"

Tom's eyes widened as he recalled their touch that sent Will's thoughts into his mind. "Together," Tom nodded.

"Together."

"Stay out of this, White Ranger," Rita snarled. "You have caused enough damage tonight. Tom Oliver! I will give you one more chance. Do not waste it. Now, what is your decision?"

"Sorry Rita," said Tom, "but you might not like this answer!"

He grabbed Will's arm. The two of them turned to shadow and traveled along the ground, where Rita's throne blocked the light of the torches behind her. The Rangers appeared on either side of Rita and grabbed her arms. Will forced his mind into hers with every ounce of focus he had, and Tom did the same. Rita screamed, tried to force the Rangers away, tried to touch either of them with her staff to blast them away, but they kept hold as black energy surged through one side of her body and white through the other.

Will and Tom thought of good, of the heroic deeds they had seen this night, not just by the Rangers but by everyone else. The army who had fought bravely against the Black Dragon. The people who had survived complete darkness with nothing but each other to cling to. Bill Cranston and his sacrifice for Zordon's sake. Jason the paramedic and his insistence that everyone else receive healing salve before tending to his own burned arm. Adam and Zack fighting the mudman inside the Youth Center, even though the fight was hopeless. April's mother, whose final words were encouragement for her daughter even as death crept its way toward her. All of those police officers, and fire fighters, and doctors and nurses and EMTs who had seen to their duty first and their own lives second. Even the media who flew dangerously close to the battlezone so that the rest of the world would learn the truth for themselves. So many had died tonight, protecting those they loved.

The Dark Matter within Rita simply could not handle this new kind of attack. It raged against her body, tried to tear it apart, but Tom's and Will's powers kept her together. The darkness tried to steal into the Rangers, but they blocked it at every turn until, finally, it released its hold on Rita Repulsa and disappeared into the room. Her body went limp. Tom and Will let go. Rita's staff clanged to the floor. The two Rangers stepped away from the throne to give Rita some space.

Rita's eyes opened. Though still golden-yellow and slit like a cat's, they had lost their odd, ethereal glow. "I…" she breathed, "I am… _me_." Her voice had lost its high, grating quality. She laughed, and truly it was an infectious laugh. "Gods, what did you do?"

"We freed your soul from the Dark Dimension," said Will, "just as we've done with all the other Rangers."

Tears welled in her eyes. "Thank you," Rita smiled. "Thank you. I—"

Goldar's sword flashed through their vision. Rita's voice caught in a sickening gurgle. Her eyes widened. The long hair that tumbled over her shoulders fell away at neck-length. Then Rita's head rolled forward and off her neck entirely. The back of her throne crumpled forward and crushed her body under its weight.

"Stupid bitch," said Goldar, resting both hands on the hilt of his sword. "How foolish was she, to think that the Dark Dimension did not notice what she was doing?"

The dark spirit that had left Rita's body now floated out of the darkness of the throne room, over the broken throne, and toward Goldar. The monster dropped his sword and spread his arms wide. "I have subsisted as half a soul for too long," he said. Black shadow swirled out from his chest like a funnel, collecting into something in front of Goldar's body. As the dark thing grew larger and larger, Goldar began to wither beneath his golden armor. The fire in his eyes dimmed. The bright scratch on his cheek faded into nothing. Will and Tom watched, dumbfounded, as the dark spirit within Goldar joined the one that had resided in Rita and slowly formed a body of its own.

The body grew from the torso out. A black heart was covered by ribs, which in turn grew black flesh around it as the skeleton extended to form limbs and a silver skull. But the flesh that grew on this body did not look like muscle, at least not like any kind Will had seen in his anatomy books. Where muscle was smooth, this flesh was lumpy, almost like it was coiled in on itself. In fact, the more it formed, the more it resembled brain tissue.

Goldar's armor clattered to the floor, leaving an emaciated gray corpse standing frozen behind the new body of pitch black. The golden armor lifted into the air and slowly, delicately, reformed itself around this new entity. As it did, darkness crept into the armor and turned it from gold to a silver that was at once shiny-new and immeasurably old. The armor etched itself all around the body, even forming a grated mouth covering both sinister and cold. The creature hovered a few inches off the ground during this transformation, but now there was a soft boom, and the creature fell to its feet, completed. Goldar's old body was gone.

"I have waited for this day for eons," it said, its voice raspier than Goldar's. It was ancient-sounding, and menacing. Despite himself, Will felt a dread in his heart when it spoke. "I have hidden within this cretin, biding my time, waiting for the perfect opportunity while my other half bent the fool Ranger to my will." It stood to its full height. It was tall, and it appeared male. Tom and Will backed away slowly as its glowing red eyes looked past them like they were nothing. "The smell of this planet offends me," the creature said. It raised an arm. The palace rumbled. The floor shook. Then Will felt something like a hook latch onto his stomach and yank. He tumbled through space and landed, unexpectedly, exactly where he stood.

Yet everything had changed.

The torches along the wall winked out. Will's feet left the floor. Outside was darkness and silence. Next to him, Tom gasped for breath, clutching at his throat as he also lifted into the air.

_No, not air,_ thought Will. His suit confirmed his fears. _We're in space._ Next to him, Kim lifted off the ground as well, and Will realized that she would soon die without oxygen. Thankfully, his own helmet provided him with a steady supply.

"I am not the weak and malleable fool that Rita thought me," said the creature, even though by all accounts Will shouldn't have been able to hear him in space. "I do not seek the Earth's destruction. I am Dark Matter. I am the Dark Dimension incarnate. I will throw the Earth into chaos and feed off the atrocities your pathetic humans will commit on each other. Fear me, Rangers! For I am Lord Zedd, and I will usher your race into an age of eternal darkness!"


End file.
